Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, met Egypt Ambassador to the Vatican Hatem Seif Al-Nasr to congratulate him for the return of the parliamentary life in Egypt. He told Seif Al-Nasr that Egypt has a special status in his heart and it is always present in his prayers (photo: Al-Youm Al-Sabei) Ali Abdel-Aal: New speaker Ali Abdel-Aal has assumed the difficult job of Speaker of the House in the first post-30 June parliament. He was elected on Sunday with 401 out of 585 votes following the House of Representatives' opening session. Abdel-Aal ran for the election as part of the “For the Love of Egypt” coalition that dominated much of the 2015 elections. Abdel-Aal is a constitutional law professor at Ain Shams University. He was a member of the committee of 10 legal experts who were given the mandate to amend Egypt's constitution in 2014, as well as the 50-person committee that produced a final revision of the document. He also sat on the committees that drafted the political rights law and the electoral laws. The parliamentary speaker is chosen through a secret ballot cast by all MPs and organised by its own committee. Both the voting and vote counting procedures are held inside parliament for transparency's sake. There were 580 valid votes. A difficult mission “The difficult mission of reviewing 95 laws issued under president Adli Mansour and another 120 issued by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in 15 days awaits parliament. Meanwhile, people are waiting to see how parliament will deal with that mission in such a short time. Now that parliament has finished choosing the speaker and his deputies, it should start as quickly as possible in its legislative mission and work as hard as it can to meet the demands and ambitions of the people.” Al-Ahram “With the opening of the first session of the new parliament, one should point to the fact that Egypt had one of the oldest parliaments in the world. The first parliament formed worldwide was in Spain in 1188. The first parliament in Egypt was formed nearly two centuries ago. Mohamed Ali Pasha established that parliament in 1824 and called it ‘The Supreme Council'.” Tarek Al-Kholi, Al-Youm Al-Sabei The least right “Why does the government insist on ignoring the remarks made by the Doctors Syndicate regarding the health insurance law? It is the right of Egyptian patients as well as doctors to express their viewpoint regarding that law.” Ragaa Al-Nemr, Al-Akhbar The symbol of Zamalek “Hamada Imam, the police officer who left his mark on the hearts of all Zamalek fans as the commentator with a pristine voice, will be remembered for his on-air analysis of the matches and explaining the art of football in a few words. He died, but his memories with football will last. Farewell Hamada Imam” Mohamed Yehia, Al-Watan “The name of Hamada Imam was linked to Zamalek for many years. Zamalek fans loved him and that love was further boosted by the fact that Imam had the best attributes of a football player, namely: skill, morals and modesty. My condolences to his wife, two sons and disciples as well the members and fans of Zamalek.” Hassan Al-Mestekawi, Al-Shorouk Egyptian Essence: 592 MPs present “592 MPs of a total of 596 attended the opening session of the parliament. It took them nearly four and a half hours to be sworn in.” Al-Watan Facebook “When Mortada Mansour declared before the parliament that he does not acknowledge the 25 January Revolution, he was sincere. He not only expressed his viewpoint, but that of the majority of a parliament that was created by security. It is a parliament that will take revenge on the revolution. By the way, can we reopen the investigations in ‘the battle of the camel' case now?” Nour Farahat “I am happy that there are various MPs who do not acknowledge the 25 January Revolution. We did not need to explain our viewpoint to people. We can simply ask them to watch the parliament and tell them that we are against those people.” Zyad Elelaimy Twitter 7DAYS MAGAZINE @Hatem_Frere1 Egypt Independent: Blunders, oath breaches and misspellings dominate parliament's day 1. Hamdi Hassan @HamdiHassan1 Can Egypt's new parliament review 330 laws in 15 days? Michele Dunne @MicheleDDunne Several MPs explicitly denounce #25Jan 2011 revolution in opening speeches in #Egypt parliament. Egypt Pulse @EgyptPulse #Egypt new parliament is expected to strengthen Sisi's hand and rubber-stamp his government's decisions.
