Socialist International

To the General Secretary of the
National Democratic Party, NDP
Egypt

Dear General Secretary,

The National Democratic Party of Egypt became a member of the Socialist International
in June 1989, at the XVIII Congress held in Stockholm.

This decision was based upon the desire of the Socialist International to build a
partnership with your organisation in the search for peace and security in that region of
the world, so crucial to global stability. The International, as a movement for peace,
recognised in this decision the will of the NDP and its leadership to sincerely engage in
this quest, as has indeed been evident over the last thirty years.

Along with this, the Socialist International wanted to encourage the development of
multi-party democracy in Egypt by expanding relationships in that part of the world, as
democracy is for our movement a fundamental pillar upon which to secure the rights
and freedoms of our citizens and to achieve social and economic progress.

Our International certainly recognises that what we managed to do together in our
common work to contribute to peace, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians,
and to foster a new climate in the region conducive to the recognition of a two-state
solution has had a positive and lasting impact.

On the other hand, the lack of developments in relation to democracy in Egypt has left
us deeply troubled, notwithstanding the hopeful moments which had arisen during the
80s and led to membership of the NDP in the SI and then again in the mid- 2000s when
a measure of important internal changes had taken place within the NDP.

The current massive calls being made today by the citizens of Egypt for freedoms and
rights point to the dramatic failure of the Egyptian government to deliver to its people
and to the failings of the NDP to live up to its promises. The use of violence, with scores
dead and injured, is totally incompatible with the policies and principles of any social
democratic party anywhere in the world.

Consequently, we consider that a party in government that does not listen, that does
not move and that does not immediately initiate a process of meaningful change in
these circumstances, cannot be a member of the Socialist International.

We are, as of today, ceasing the membership of the NDP, however we remain
determined to cooperate with all the democrats in Egypt striving to achieve an open,
democratic, inclusive and secular state.

Yours sincerely,

Luis Ayala
Secretary General

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