Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris commented on the controversy surrounding the allocation of land and the sale of banks in Egypt to resolve the public debt crisis, criticizing the policies of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, which he said led to "the bankruptcy of public companies or their looting."
Naguib Sawiris's comment came amid the debate over the privatization of Cairo Bank and the allocation of a plot of land in the Red Sea Governorate to address the budget deficit and public debt, after Egyptian politician Hamdeen Sabahi expressed his opposition to it.
Sabahi wrote on his Facebook page on Friday: "No to the sale of Egyptian land, no to the sale of Cairo Bank."
Egyptian lawyer Khaled Abu Bakr responded to Hamdeen Sabahi in a post on his personal Facebook page: "I love Hamdeen Sabahi and his family, but I ask him to speak on his expertise and to stop using slogans that have become faded and have only brought us disappointment."
For his part, Naguib Sawiris commented on Hamdeen Sabahi's rejection by saying: "Nasserist thinking is outdated and has proven to be a colossal failure!" as he put it.
Within the debate, one user on the "X" platform addressed the Egyptian businessman, saying: "Naguib, the Nasserist thought was not a failure; it was Nasserist thought that raised the standard of living of Egyptians and made the largest industrial renaissance in Egypt's history. These are things you don't understand because you are interested in building your wealth without any concern for the Egyptian people. You will never understand Nasser, because you were created only for yourself and your class," he said.
Naguib Sawiris replied to him through his official account on "X," saying: "You are a Nasserist but you wrote in your profile that you are against the rule of an individual.. wasn't Nasser's rule the rule of an individual????? The industrial renaissance...all its companies went bankrupt or were looted like all of the public sector," he expressed.
Egypt is seeking to reduce the public debt ratio to about 69.5% of the GDP by 2030, by reducing the budget deficit, increasing public and tax revenues, rationalizing spending, setting specific ceilings for domestic and foreign indebtedness and sovereign guarantees, and diversifying financing tools, as part of a governmental plan aimed at alleviating the burdens of debt servicing and providing greater resources for spending on priority sectors.