On the morning of this Wednesday, at the presidential headquarters in Heliopolis, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi witnessed the new deputy prime minister, ministers and deputy ministers take the constitutional oath, in the presence of Dr Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, who was given renewed confidence for the third consecutive time, in preparation for beginning their official duties in the new government.
In the context of the cabinet changes, the President issued a decree abolishing the Ministry of Public Business Sector, as part of the government’s structural reforms. Ambassador Mohamed El-Shenawy, the official spokesman for the Presidency, explained that Presidential Decree No. 75 of 2026 stipulated in its fourth article the abolition of the ministry, while assigning the Prime Minister to issue the decisions necessary to regulate the consequences of this abolition, including transferring the tasks, powers and administration to the other relevant bodies.
The cabinet changes sparked controversy and condemnation in political and media circles. The reshuffle kept a number of ministers whose names have been associated with criticism during the past period, while the changes included new ministers whose names carry question marks and raise questions about the selection criteria, especially since court rulings have been issued against some of them or their names have been linked to corruption cases.
These changes came amid difficult political and economic conditions, and after the new Parliament began exercising its legislative and oversight functions, as the last broad cabinet reshuffle took place in July 2024, following the presidential election held in December 2023, which resulted in the government being re-formed with Mostafa Madbouly remaining Prime Minister.
The latest cabinet reshuffle aims to achieve national security and foreign policy, economic development, the strengthening of production and energy, and food security, in addition to developing the systems of society and human development.
The reshuffle also brought back the Ministry of State for Information, years after the Ministry of Information was abolished, which raised questions about the limits of the role expected of the ministry in the coming stage, especially given the existence of a number of media and press bodies, alongside the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, which was formed in 2018 to contribute to managing the media and press landscape in Egypt.
Parliamentary Approval Amid Objections
In this context, the House of Representatives approved the cabinet changes amid the objection of a number of MPs counted among the ranks of the opposition. The session witnessed tensions that led to delaying the convening of the session for about two hours, and it ended with the approval of the changes despite the objectors.
For his part, Dr Freddy El-Bayadi, a member of the House of Representatives and deputy head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, believes that the latest cabinet reshuffle was disappointing and does not at all rise to the scale of the crises the country is experiencing, whether on the economic, service or social level.
He adds in his conversation with Zawia3 that keeping the head of the government means in practice the continuation of the same policies and the same style of management, policies that have proven to be a failure, especially in managing the economic file, for whose failures citizens pay the price every day.
He points out that what happened cannot be considered real reform, but merely a cosmetic change that reproduces the crisis instead of confronting it, as some figures were replaced without any clear indications of a change of course or a correction of previous mistakes.
El-Bayadi stresses that the Egyptian Social Democratic Party rejected the cabinet reshuffle during the vote, considering that what was put forward does not address the core of the problems, does not offer real solutions, and does not respond to citizens’ aspirations.
In this context, the parliamentary bloc of the Al-Adl Party announced its refusal to approve the proposed cabinet reshuffle of Dr Mostafa Madbouly’s government. It explained in a statement yesterday, Tuesday, that the party’s MPs had submitted an official letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Counsellor Hisham Badawi, explaining the justifications for their rejection of the reshuffle, and requesting that it be included in the minutes of the session and appended to them, in accordance with Article (332) of the internal bylaws of the House of Representatives.
The party explained that its position was based on several main axes. First: the party believes that the new cabinet line-up includes elements whose practical and executive competence has not yet been sufficiently proven to confront the current challenges. In addition, the cabinet line-up does not provide the minimum change required to create effective executive movement or a tangible improvement in the government’s performance. Moreover, the reshuffle came without presenting an objective evaluation of the performance of the previous ministers or the justifications for dismissal and replacement, which limits the House’s ability to exercise its oversight and evaluative role on clear and transparent bases.
حين يحذرك من اشتراه: الاتصالات تنبه من برمجيات إسرائيلية دفعت مصر ملايين الدولارات لاستخدامها
The Education Minister Stays Despite the Crises
The Minister of Education, Mohamed Abdel Latif, has remained in his post despite the criticism and crises that have accompanied him since the first day he took the oath in June 2024. The minister has stirred wide controversy, which began with the question of the validity of his university degree, especially the doctorate attributed to him from Cardiff City in the United States of America, and ended with his referral to the Criminal Court.
The university had categorically confirmed that Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif is not listed in its records and did not enrol in any of its academic programmes, and it also stated that the serial number printed on the copy of the certificate attributed to it belongs to another person, which indicates possible data manipulation, according to what lawyer Amr Hassan Abdel Salam, a member of the defence team and a lawyer before the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Constitutional Court, tells Zawia3. This prompted a number of lawyers to file lawsuits demanding his removal from his post on the grounds of forgery and the invalidity of the qualifications he submitted.
Meanwhile, the investigating authorities in Egypt referred the Minister of Education, Mohamed Abdel Latif, to criminal trial before the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court, and set a session on 13 May to consider the case. The referral came on the charge that the minister, in his official capacity, deliberately refrained from implementing a final court ruling issued in 2013, which orders the handing over of Tawa Primary School in Minya Governorate to its owners, the heirs, after the end of the lease contract. The legal demands in the case include imprisoning the minister and removing him from his post in accordance with Article 123 of the Penal Code, in addition to a demand for provisional civil compensation of EGP one million.
For its part, the Ministry of Education explained that the case is old and dates back to a long period before the current minister took office, stressing that the action filed is a “direct misdemeanour” against the minister in his official capacity and not in his personal capacity, and that the administrative dispute is still under legal treatment, pointing out that the circulating news about a prison sentence being issued against the minister is incorrect.
The minister has also faced continuous criticism because of repeated incidents of sexual abuse inside schools, without offering radical solutions or clear mechanisms for prevention and accountability, which angered public opinion. In addition, the new baccalaureate system launched by the minister has intensified the controversy, as a number of MPs expressed their rejection of the rapid application of the system, considering that it lacks sufficient preparation for students and teachers alike, and increases educational burdens without guaranteeing a tangible improvement in the quality of education.
For his part, lawyer Ali Ayoub, one of the lawyers participating in the lawsuit demanding the removal of the Minister of Education, Mohamed Abdel Latif, explains the outcome of the cases related to his appointment, saying: “The court issued a ruling not accepting the case because of the absence of an administrative decision, as the court found no obligation on the state to withdraw the ministerial portfolio from the minister, which means that Abdel Latif continues in his post and has won all the cases filed against him.”
On the question of his degrees, Ayoub states that they submitted requests for inquiry to the Supreme Council of Universities, but the court did not take these requests into consideration in its ruling, which aborted the possibility of an appeal on the basis of the validity of the qualifications. He points out that they did not file an appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court, because of the frustration they suffered and the futility of continuing along the legal path.
The lawyer concludes by considering that the state’s silence on this case, without any official response, is implicit evidence of the accuracy of the information they obtained about the qualifications, even though the court ruling was issued in the minister’s favour.
For his part, education expert Moheb Abboud says that the Minister of Education remaining in his post despite the objections and criticism goes beyond the person of the minister to reach the regime’s methodology in selecting leaders.
He explains in his conversation with Zawia3 that the mechanism for selecting ministers in Egypt is limited to a narrow circle of names (about 200 to 300 people, whom he calls “the cream”) who are rotated between posts, instead of there being a real centre for preparing and transferring power and preparing qualified cadres, denouncing the minister’s continuation in his post despite the existence of many qualified alternatives within what he called the “pool of competencies”, and despite the commotion raised over his university degrees, and pointing out that the minister and his mother have a strong network within the joints of the Egyptian state, which protects him despite the exposure of the “degrees scandal”, as he put it.
Abboud also points out that the current educational policies are largely “illusory”, and that first-grade primary pupils stay up for long hours solving homework, while teachers are drowned in timelines, assessments and marking, which turns the educational process into mere paperwork that does not reflect the educational reality.
The education expert concludes by warning about the future ahead, as he affirms that keeping controversial figures in this way does not serve the general management of the political regime, even from the perspective of its direct interests, as the accumulation of anger and loss of trust leads to harming the stability of the state and its institutions.
800 Lawyers Challenge Minister’s Appointment Amid Credential Forgery Claims
The Ministry of Finance on the Same Path Despite the Crises
The latest cabinet reshuffle did not include the post of Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk, who, before taking up the ministerial portfolio in 2024, had held the post of Deputy Finance Minister for Fiscal Policies and Institutional Development since March 2016, despite the condemnation that accompanied fiscal and economic policies in Egypt during the past period, especially regarding the reliance on hot money in investment, and the rising cost of debt service, which contributed to aggravating the pressures on public finances.
In the same context, Dr Sherif Farouk remained in his post as Minister of Supply and Internal and External Trade, despite widespread criticism linked to several files within the food security system and the prices of basic goods.
Among the most prominent issues that stirred controversy was the transfer of responsibility for importing wheat from the General Authority for Supply Commodities to the “Mostakbal Misr for Sustainable Development” agency, an agency in whose ownership one of the sovereign bodies participates, which raised questions about transparency and the real cost of wheat imports.
In addition, there is the crisis of the failure to control prices in the markets and to regularly provide basic goods, despite the minister’s statements that there are multiple mechanisms for controlling prices and that channels for trading have been added, such as one-day markets, with goods such as bread and sugar continuing to be provided at subsidised prices. Experts and economists consider this insufficient to address the crisis of rising prices or to protect citizens’ purchasing power.
The food subsidy system also faces criticism because of the reduction in the number of ration card beneficiaries in past years, which led to groups leaving the basic subsidy system, such as the bread subsidy and the ration goods on which many families relied, despite the ministry’s justification of these steps as targeting subsidies to those most in need and improving their efficiency.
In this context, economic and political researcher Elhamy El-Merghany believes that the latest cabinet reshuffle is limited, and that the major problem is not only in the person of the Finance Minister, but lies in the continuation of the same economic and social policies and the previous achievements, which led to the issuance of dozens of pieces of legislation that he described as hostile to the popular and vulnerable classes.
El-Merghany adds in his conversation with Zawia3 that the Finance Minister remaining at the head of his post, despite the worsening budget deficit, the swelling of indebtedness and the failure of tax policy, signals the continued reliance on debt, rising inflation and the levying of burdens on the poor classes.
El-Merghany continues that the continuation of the Minister of Supply, despite the controversy over the wheat deals with the Mostakbal Misr agency, symbolises adherence to the same previous policies, which extends, according to his analysis, to other ministries such as education, health, transport and communications, and foreign policy, stressing that this approach reflects the absence of a desire to carry out fundamental reforms that meet citizens’ needs.
Suspicions of Corruption Against the Ministers of Culture and Housing
The controversy was not limited to the Minister of Education, but included a number of male and female ministers in the latest cabinet reshuffle, among them the new Minister of Culture, Dr Jihan Zaki. The controversy around her comes after a first-instance court ruling was issued in July 2025, relating to the violation of the intellectual property rights of another writer, which ordered the confiscation and destruction of Zaki’s book, in addition to obliging her to pay financial compensation of EGP 100,000 in case No. 1631, after her violation of intellectual property was proven. This raised condemnation and questions about the appropriateness of choosing a figure against whom a court ruling relating to intellectual property has been issued to hold the post of Minister of Culture.
For her part, writer Soheir Abdel Hamid, managing editor of Al-Ahram newspaper, spoke about the reasons for the court ruling issued against the current Minister of Culture, Jihan Zaki, as she says that the origin of the crisis goes back to her book entitled “The Assassination of Qut al-Qulub al-Demerdashiya”, which took great research efforts on her part to document the life of Qut al-Qulub, who had a long record in encouraging writers, which led her to launch an annual literary prize in 1940 named the “Qut al-Qulub Prize”, the first recipient of which was the writer Naguib Mahfouz.
Abdel Hamid explains in her conversation with Zawia3 that Zaki’s book, which deals with the life story of “Coco Chanel and Qut al-Qulub”, included a verbatim copying of nearly 50% of the content of her book, including the chapter titles, the narrative style and even the author’s own imagination, which was confirmed by the technical committee formed by the court.
She points to the issuance of a final court ruling in her favour in July 2025, ordering the confiscation and destruction of the Minister of Culture’s book, and obliging her to pay financial compensation. She adds that the current Minister of Culture, who is accused of violating intellectual property, filed a police report for insult and defamation against her after she spoke about the book crisis, but the report was later shelved.
On Zaki taking up the post of Minister of Culture, Abdel Hamid expresses her moral and cultural shock, considering that the matter represents a “strange paradox”, as someone who violated authors’ rights becomes responsible for creativity and culture in the state. She also stresses that the defence of her case is not limited to herself alone, but represents the protection of the rights of all creators, explaining the difference between commonly known historical information and the literary and artistic wording, which is the exclusive property of the writer.
In the same context, the appointment of engineer Randa Ali Saleh El-Menshawy to the post of Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities stirred great controversy, because of previous accusations related to corruption that accompanied her. El-Menshawy was investigated before the Public Funds Prosecution in case No. 641 of 2017, Supreme Public Funds inventory, to clarify her bonuses, allowances and profits from memberships of the boards of directors of entities and bodies affiliated with the Ministry of Housing, when she was at that time head of the Housing Minister’s office sector.
According to the investigations, the prosecution wrote to competent bodies such as the Housing and Development Bank to inquire about the value of the profits she received from her membership of the board of directors, which prompted El-Menshawy to return EGP one million to the Housing and Development Bank that she had obtained without right, in addition to returning an amount of EGP 450,000 that she had received from one of the bodies affiliated with the Ministry of Housing.
Since the late 1990s, Rania El-Menshawy has risen through leadership positions: she worked as a chief specialist at the Reconstruction Research and Studies Agency, then deputy head of the agency, and held other executive posts within the ministry, before she was appointed by Dr Mostafa Madbouly as First Assistant to the Prime Minister for Follow-up Affairs in December 2019, and then the House of Representatives approved her appointment as Minister of Housing, Utilities and New Urban Communities as part of the latest cabinet reshuffle.
The Return of the Ministry of State for Information: What About Its Powers?
The Ministry of State for Information has returned to the government scene after its abolition in 2019, while its tasks had been assigned to three main bodies established under the 2014 Constitution, in its Articles 211, 212 and 213, and its 2019 amendments, and the laws issued in 2016 and 2018, to replace the Ministry of Information, namely (the National Media Authority, the National Press Authority and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, which was established under Law No. 180 of 2018).
In the latest cabinet reshuffle, former head of the Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan took charge of the Ministry of State for Information, which raised questions about the extent of its actual powers and the limits of its intervention, especially since the tasks of regulating the media had previously been assigned to the Supreme Council of Administrative Bodies.
In this context, Dr Karem Mahmoud, professor of media and former secretary-general of the Journalists Syndicate, says that the Egyptian media landscape suffers from clear chaos and weak regulatory controls, and that the three major bodies responsible for the media and press file have not succeeded over the past years in controlling the media landscape or offering a media product capable of competing locally, in the Arab world or globally.
He explains that government media, including the Egyptian Television channels and Maspero, have declined significantly and become out of the competition, despite the efforts made by the current National Media Authority headed by Ahmed El-Muslimani, stressing that the severe lack of resources and the absence of a clear vision are two fundamental obstacles to the development of Egyptian media, and that the national newspapers are going from bad to worse, with the absence of a clear restructuring or a plan to revive the press institutions.
The former secretary-general of the Journalists Syndicate points out that the experience of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation has not gone beyond punitive decisions and the suspension of programmes or presenters, and has not shown any strategic vision for developing Egyptian media, whether in traditional or modern outlets. He adds that the establishment of a government committee to study media development, which issued recommendations after meetings that extended over several months, is an official acknowledgement by the state that Egyptian media is going through a real crisis.
The media professor affirms that this reality represents the positive side that explains the return of a Ministry of State for Information, as it is seen as a means of re-regulating the media landscape and setting real development plans, while the negative side lies in the question about the powers of the new minister and the possibility of bypassing the three bodies, and the space of media freedom available to journalists and media outlets, stressing that the development of the media will not be achieved in the absence of reform of the legislative environment, opening up the public sphere and granting the minister real executive powers.
The media professor warns against repeating a previous experience, when the former Ministry of Information assumed its duties without actual powers, amid an environment hostile to freedoms and media professionals, which led to its failure to achieve its goals, asking: “Will we reproduce the same scene and expect different results, or will the state give the new ministry real executive tools and a space for media freedom to actually develop the landscape?”
The continuation of a number of ministers in their controversial posts, alongside the appointment of new ministers whose CVs carry court rulings or investigations related to corruption and public funds, raises serious questions about the extent of commitment to the standards of competence and integrity in forming the government. Experts, politicians and analysts point out that the crisis is not limited to the selection alone, but extends to the continuation of the same policies, which means an increased likelihood that the political and economic crisis the country has been witnessing for years will continue.
