Bread politics

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s announcement in August that the government plans to raise the price of subsidized bread was not all that surprising.

The move comes in the midst of a broader economic policy put in place over the past several years to introduce harsh austerity measures that have been lauded by government experts and international lending institutions while doing little to alleviate growing levels of poverty. The measures have been instituted as the state maintains an iron grip on the political sphere and silences opposition voices, ensuring its economic policies are met with little resistance.

What is new this time, however, is that economic austerity is being directly applied to bread — an important symbol in the collective imagination of millions of Egyptians and a key linchpin in the relationship between the citizen and the state. For decades, the bread subsidy remained off-limits, a potential powder keg that was avoided by successive governments. And despite an unprecedented level of state repression and control over the past several years, the risks posed by lifting bread subsidies still exist.

Bread politics is a seven-part series that takes an in-depth look at bread subsidies in Egypt.

The political calculations over how the government is trying to overcome the predicament it currently finds itself in — caught between economic realities and budget constraints on the one hand and the potential for popular anger on the other — are the focus of the first article in this series, with Rana Mamdouh, Aida Salem and Omaima Ismail reporting on the backroom politics surrounding the president’s decision to lift bread subsidies.

Sara Seif Eddin takes us through the history of subsidized bread and how pivotal it has been to the relationship between the citizen and the state. This centrality is also prevalent when considering the position of bread in Egyptian cinema, as Bassam Mortada does in an in-depth video. Meanwhile, Beesan Kassab explains how the subsidy system has been tinkered with over the previous seven years.

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Mohamed Tarek writes about the bread subsidy system from an important, but mostly forgotten, perspective: bakery owners. Nada Arafat dives into the topic of “flour extraction,” to understand various aspects of bread production and quality.

With Sisi claiming that the savings from lifting bread subsidies will be channeled towards the government’s new school meals program, Omaima Ismail looks into how the program does or doesn’t work. And Rana Mamdouh sits down with former Supply Minister Gouda Abdel Khaleq for an in-depth conversation about possible alternatives to raising the price of subsidized bread.

As a final government decision lingers in the near horizon, Bread politics explores the various political, economic, and cultural implications of subsidized bread in Egypt.