Mohamed
Morsi delivered a defiant speech
Tuesday, warning that the country
may descend into an endless spiral
of violence if people continued to
challenge his “legitimate” right to
rule, at one point going so far as to
say that he was willing to die if his
claim to power was not honored.
“There is no alternative to
legitimacy, the constitutional
legitimacy, legal legitimacy and
electoral legal legitimacy that
produced an elected president for
Egypt for the first time in its
history,” Mr. Morsi said in a speech
that aired on Egypt’s state-owned
television. He repeated the word
“legitimacy” dozens of times, and
each mention was followed by a
warning of “violence.”
“This legitimacy is the real
guarantee, in fact it is the only one,
to ensure that there will be no
violence,” he said.
Without committing to any tangible
concession, Mr. Morsi made general
overtures for “dialogue” with the
different political forces that are
now calling on him to step down. He
briefly acknowledged that he may
have made “mistakes” since he
came to power about a year ago, but
pointed to an array of setbacks and
enemies that he said were beyond
his control, among them “remnants
of the past regime, the deep state,
corruption and the insistence on
maintaining this corruption and the
economic condition that we
inherited.”
“The new democratic experience is
a challenge that many people who
want corruption do not like,” Mr.
Morsi said in a long-winded speech
that exceeded 40 minutes. “And
abroad there are also people who
don’t want Egypt to exercise its
will.”
Mr. Morsi did not acknowledge the
size of the protests that began on
Sunday, but with millions of
protesters in the street and a
military ultimatum that may force
Mr. Morsi to step down in the next
24 hours, his speech seemed to offer
no way out of the current political
deadlock.
“The people appointed me, the
people chose me in free and clean
elections, the people made a
constitution that delegated me,
there is a state that is waiting for
me to commit to this legitimacy, to
commit to this constitution, to
protect it,” Mr. Morsi repeated, his
body shaking. “I have no choice but
to take responsibility. I am taking
responsibility, I was and still am,
and still will. The blood of Egyptians
is very dear to me. Very, very.”
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