“Egypt’s prime minister said Thursday the spirit of the Arab Spring was still alive in his country and that the army chief likely to run for the presidency was no dictator, but more a De Gaulle figure……………..”

Actually Dr. Al Beblawi went on to compare Al Sisi to General De Gaulle and General Dwight Eisenhower (but oddly not Generalísimo Franco, the most famous counter-revolutionary of the last century). Except that neither De Gaulle nor Eisenhower came to power by a military coup d’etat, Franco did. Eisenhower defeated Nazi Germany during the war, and Al Sisi defeated Tahrir Square and liberated Rab’a Al Adawiya and Mohammed Morsi. Come to think of it: why not Napoleon Bonaparte? He also claimed to be saving France. Al Sisi will be hard pressed to show an Austerlitz in his resume, maybe Mr. Mubarak’s War on Pigs of 2009?

De Gaulle’s return to power was called the Fifth Republic. Sisi’s will probably be called the Third Republic (Nasser was the First, Sadat-Mubarak were the Second).

Cheers
mhg