The People's Assembly saw yesterday one of the severest exchanges ever between representatives from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which developed into a verbal scuffle. The clashes occurred during final discussions of the state budget. The confrontation started when MB representative Ashraf Badr Eddin waved a copy of the constitution, requesting permission from People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour to spotlight a constitutional violations in the budget report. Sorour refused. "I'll teach you a lesson in how to respect the Constitution," Sorour told Badr Eddin. "Raise your shoe please," he continued, referring to an incident when Badr Eddin hoisted his shoe during the last parliamentary session. Badr Eddin shouted that the breaches which had taken place are "thieves' actions." An agitated Ahmed Ezz, head of the NDP Budget and Planing Committee, responded: "I know better than you; I do not accept exaggerations from those who do not understand and who want to make people skeptical about the budget." Ezz pointed his finger to the Brotherhood representatives saying, "Look who is talking about the Constitution. You raised your shoes inside the parliament, stop fooling the people." MB members then sprung from their seats, prompting NDP members to quickly surround Ezz. Sorour then called upon the Brotherhood representatives to sit down. Despite approving the budget report, Sorour noted he had received a memo from 98 Brotherhood and independent parliamentarians calling for the report to be rejected. The petitioners challenged the report's legality, arguing that it claimed false returns of LE24.3 billions--supposedly a surplus from pension and insurance funds--which the memo described as a "fraud." Translated from the Arabic Edition.
