CAIRO — Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first democratically elected president in June 2012, and the first civilian to hold the office, after his Freedom and Justice Party — the Brotherhood's political vehicle — captured a dominant share of parliamentary seats in elections held from November 2011 through January 2012. The victories appeared to mark a decisive turn in Egyptian politics after the 2011 revolution that forced Hosni Mubarak from power.
The Brotherhood's rise was swift but immediately contested. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which had governed Egypt after Mubarak's fall, moved to limit the new government's reach from the outset. The post-Mubarak military establishment had the results of the parliamentary election nullified through the courts, stripping the Freedom and Justice Party of its legislative base before Morsi had completed his first month in office.
Morsi's government also faced a constitutional void. At the start of his presidency, the status of the disbanded parliament remained unresolved, as did the broad powers the military council had granted itself. The Brotherhood, which had historically operated as a pragmatic, moderately conservative organization, now found itself trying to consolidate electoral gains while preserving the legal continuity of a state whose institutions were working against it.
A Constituent Assembly was formed in June 2012, tasked with drafting a new constitution. That constitution went to a referendum in December 2012 and was approved by 63.8 percent of voters. The margin was significant, but the vote did not quiet the country's political divisions.
Egypt's instability deepened through 2013. The second anniversary of the 2011 revolution, in January and February 2013, produced mass street protests and violence, with multiple fatalities. The unrest worsened an already severe economic crisis. Morsi declared a limited state of emergency, but his government acknowledged the country was being overtaken by what officials described as chaos and lawlessness. Opposition came from multiple directions: secular activists who had participated in the revolt against Mubarak, the judiciary and the military establishment.
By June 2013, on the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration, demonstrators again filled the streets demanding his resignation or removal. Morsi refused to leave office. On July 3, 2013, Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Fatah al-Sisi led a military coup that removed Morsi's elected government. The Brotherhood had held the presidency for 13 months.
After the coup, pro-Morsi supporters staged weeks of sit-in demonstrations in Cairo. The new military-backed regime declared a state of emergency and on Aug. 14, 2013—13 years ago today—security forces violently dispersed the protesters. The crackdown that followed was later described, in assessments of the period, as more damaging to the Brotherhood's core organization than any in the group's eight decades of existence.
The trajectory in Egypt did not stand alone. In Tunisia, parties aligned with the Ennahda movement—a political party with ideological roots similar to the Brotherhood's—had won a plurality in the parliament elected after the Tunisian uprising of 2011. Tunisia's transition lasted longer than Egypt's and proceeded through several elected governments, but authoritarian consolidation eventually followed there as well, under President Kais Saied, who suspended parliament in 2021 and rewrote the constitution.
In Egypt, the Brotherhood had entered the post-Mubarak period carrying decades of suppression. Under Mubarak, whose rule stretched for roughly three decades, the organization operated under sustained government pressure. In the 2010 parliamentary elections—the last under Mubarak—the ruling National Democratic Party subjected Brotherhood-linked candidates to electoral fraud, prompting the group and other opposition parties to boycott the second round entirely.
The Brotherhood's membership in Egypt is estimated at between two and 2.5 million people. Despite that base, the organization lost its institutional foothold completely within two years of achieving its greatest electoral success. Following the 2013 coup and the August crackdown, Egyptian authorities moved to designate the Brotherhood a terrorist organization and prosecuted large numbers of its members and leaders.
The episode laid out a specific sequence: a new opening, electoral success by an Islamist movement with a large popular base, a military establishment that refused to cede institutional control, growing street opposition from secular factions, and ultimately a coup that returned the armed forces to direct power. Al-Sisi went on to win presidential elections in 2014 and has governed Egypt since.
