Egypt’s new government took the constitutional oath before President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Wednesday morning, after the Egyptian House of Representatives approved a broad cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday evening in the government of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.
The reshuffle included the appointment of a Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, 17 new ministers, and four deputy ministers, without changes to the sovereign ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Finance. The approval came during an emergency plenary session dedicated to discussing and formally endorsing the amendment, following a meeting between President el-Sisi and the Prime Minister to review the proposed changes.
Parliament approved the reshuffle by a majority of members present after the President’s message was read aloud, paving the way for the completion of constitutional procedures. The newly appointed ministers were scheduled to take the constitutional oath before el-Sisi the following day, Wednesday.
The reshuffle included the appointment of Hussein Ahmed Issa as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs; Khaled Abdel Ghaffar as Minister of Health and Population; and Kamel El-Wazir as Minister of Transport, after separating the industry portfolio into an independent ministry. Changes were also introduced in the portfolios of Investment, Planning, Housing, Communications, Culture, and Media, along with the creation of new positions and deputies in several ministries. This signals a broad restructuring of the government at a time of mounting economic pressures and growing calls to reassess executive priorities.
At the same time, a number of ministers remained in their posts, most notably Foreign Minister Ambassador Badr Abdel Aaty and Defense Minister Lieutenant General Abdel Meguid Saqr. Engineer Mahmoud Esmat continued as Minister of Electricity, and Engineer Karim Badawi as Minister of Petroleum. Ahmed Kouchouk remained Minister of Finance, Dr. Sherif Farouk continued as Minister of Supply, Dr. Osama Al-Azhari remained Minister of Endowments, and Mohamed Abdel Latif continued as Minister of Education. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar also continued as Minister of Health and Population. Lieutenant General Kamel El-Wazir was appointed Minister of Transport only, after previously serving as Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport.
On Tuesday morning, President el-Sisi held a meeting with Prime Minister Madbouly to discuss amendments to the government formation. According to a statement issued by the Presidency, el-Sisi stressed the necessity for the upcoming government formation to work toward achieving a set of defined objectives, including national security and foreign policy priorities, economic development, production, energy and food security, as well as societal development and human capital building, in addition to implementing new mandates aligned with the rationale behind the cabinet reshuffle.
The Egyptian Constitution regulates the mechanism for forming a government under Article 146, which stipulates that the President assigns a person to assume the position of Prime Minister to form the government and present its program to the House of Representatives. If the government does not obtain the confidence of a majority of members within a maximum of thirty days, the President assigns another Prime Minister from the party or coalition holding the majority of parliamentary seats. If the new government also fails to secure the confidence of the majority within thirty days, the House of Representatives is deemed dissolved, and the President must call for new parliamentary elections within sixty days from the date of the dissolution decision. In all cases, the total period of assignments referred to in this article must not exceed sixty days.
Recycling Policies
Observers argue that the cabinet reshuffle does not match the scale of the challenges facing the state. For his part, Dr. Freddy El-Bayadi, Member of Parliament and Vice President of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, described the reshuffle as “disappointing” and said it failed to rise to the level of the crises the country is experiencing.
El-Bayadi told Zawia3 that retaining the Prime Minister “simply means the continuation of the same policies and the same style of governance—policies that have proven unsuccessful, particularly in the economic file, where conditions have reached unprecedented levels of pressure on citizens.” He added that “what took place cannot be considered reform, but rather a recycling of the crisis, as some names were changed without any real indication of a serious review of the adopted approach or an effort to address the causes of failure.”
El-Bayadi further noted that the reinstatement of the Ministry of Information raises major questions about the government’s priorities at a time when the state budget is burdened with massive obligations and citizens are being asked to shoulder additional costs, while spending is being expanded without justification. He also pointed out that “retaining the Minister of Education, despite the worsening crises in this vital sector, sends a shocking message to public opinion and reflects disregard for the scale of societal anger over the state of education.”
El-Bayadi indicated that the Egyptian Social Democratic Party rejected the cabinet reshuffle during the vote, arguing that what was presented does not constitute a solution to the crisis, does not respond to citizens’ aspirations, and does not open any real horizon for the change that is needed.
What Has Mostafa Madbouly Delivered?
Engineer Mostafa Madbouly assumed the premiership in June 2018 after being tasked by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with forming the government and taking the constitutional oath before him in mid-month. Since then, he has retained his position through successive cabinet reshuffles, making him one of the longest-serving prime ministers in Egypt’s republican era after 1952.
Over nearly eight years, sharp criticism has accumulated regarding the performance of Madbouly and his team, particularly in the economic and social spheres. The country has witnessed a marked escalation in public debt, rising from $42 billion in 2014 to approximately $165 billion in 2023, with more than $132 billion paid in debt service. Servicing costs have reached unprecedented levels, alongside growing reliance on external borrowing and “asset sale” deals to close financing gaps, in addition to a 462% decline in the value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar since 2016.
This has been accompanied by criticism over weak transparency and accountability in debt management strategy and programs to sell or invest state assets, amid the absence of meaningful public dialogue about the long-term costs of these policies.
As a result of economic and social pressures, citizens have endured successive waves of inflation and rising prices, leading to the erosion of purchasing power and the expansion of poverty, despite the government’s adoption of “economic reform” rhetoric and repeated programs coordinated with international financial institutions.
Madbouly’s government has also been accused of an excessive focus on major infrastructure and real estate projects, such as the New Administrative Capital and road and bridge networks, at the expense of social and productive sectors, foremost among them health, education, and small and medium-sized industry.
At the same time, the government faces international criticism for failing to implement reforms required by the International Monetary Fund under the 2022 agreement, which expanded to $8 billion in 2024. These reforms include transparent management of state-owned companies, particularly military-affiliated firms; the issuance of comprehensive reports on tax exemptions; ending preferential tax treatment for those companies; and improving customs procedures. Attempts to privatize companies affiliated with the military establishment have stalled, while exemptions continue under the pretext of national security.
Observers also criticize excessive reliance on external assistance, which has totaled approximately $200 billion since 2013, and on mega-projects, leading to stagnation in the real economy. While the government says it has completed 85% of the economic reform program and cites the attraction of foreign investments, including a $24 billion package, unofficial estimates suggest that poverty rates have exceeded 60%, with around 69 million people suffering from food insecurity. Public spending on health has declined from 1.7% to 1.4% of GDP between 2014/2015 and 2023/2024, resulting in chronic shortages of medicines, medical personnel, and healthcare services.
The latest estimates from the Central Bank of Egypt indicate that 2026 will be among the heaviest years for external debt servicing, with the state committed to repaying approximately $29.18 billion to foreign creditors, including both principal and interest. This amount is divided into $23.79 billion in principal repayments and $5.4 billion in interest, reflecting the ballooning debt bill and its direct impact on the general budget’s financing needs.
Political economy professor Karim El-Omda argues that the broad consensus regarding weak government performance is not limited to experts and specialists, but extends to ordinary citizens. He considers that successive governments, including the current one, have failed to ease the economic crisis, a reality clearly reflected in deteriorating living conditions.
In remarks to Zawia3, El-Omda says that the continued tenure of Mostafa Madbouly, reinforced with each renewed confirmation of his stay, deepens public frustration amid the absence of objective justifications for insisting on his retention, as if Egypt, with all its human capital, lacks qualified economic expertise capable of managing the current phase.
He rejects the circulating narrative that the position was offered to several figures who declined, explaining that the real issue lies in the nature of the premiership itself, which is administered with curtailed powers and constraints that limit any prime minister’s ability to effect real change, rendering the post unattractive to capable figures able to offer genuine solutions.
According to El-Omda, the priorities of successive governments have been nearly identical, foremost among them inflation and rising prices, the public debt crisis, and declining dollar resources. However, addressing these files cannot be limited to crisis management; it requires a genuine breakthrough through localizing industry and doubling Egyptian exports to exceed $100 billion.
He stresses that achieving these goals remains extremely difficult in the absence of parliamentary councils possessing the competence and capacity for oversight and accountability. He emphasizes that the House of Representatives and the Senate constitute a fundamental pillar complementing government performance, and that any government, regardless of its expertise, will continue to suffer institutional shortcomings without an effective parliament.
For his part, former MP Haitham El-Hariri said that the continuation of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly at the head of government at this stage has become a legitimate, even painful, question, in light of declining public satisfaction, an unprecedented drop in Egyptians’ purchasing power, clear deterioration in education and health, soaring service prices, shrinking space for freedom of opinion and expression, and violations in the most recent elections.
In a post on his official page, El-Hariri stated that nearly eight years of government management have produced a reality visible to all: an exhausted citizen, an eroding middle class, youth without prospects, and basic services turning into luxuries, while schools and hospitals are no longer capable of fulfilling their human, let alone professional, roles.
He affirmed that the problem is no longer about figures or official data, but about people’s daily lives: a breadwinner unable to meet his family’s basic needs; a patient searching for treatment he cannot afford; a student receiving education that neither prepares him for the labor market nor builds genuine awareness; and a citizen who feels his voice is no longer heard and that his opinion has become a burden.
El-Hariri added that Madbouly’s continuation at this time cannot be read as “stability,” but rather as a message of disregard for people’s suffering. Any limited cabinet reshuffle, he argued, does not address the deep crisis of trust, does not change policies that have proven unsuccessful, and does not restore consideration to a society that feels excluded from the equation.
He concluded that “countries are not negatively affected only by economic crises, but when the executive authority becomes detached from the pulse of the street, when suffering turns into statistics, anger into noise without echo, and legitimate demands into a political luxury. We do not need to change faces, but to change an approach. We do not need media sedatives, but a genuine vision that places the human being at the center of decision-making. Continuing the same policies with the same mindset will only lead to more dissatisfaction and a widening gap between the government and the citizen.”
