Fouad Pasha Serageddin (2 November 1911 – 9 August 2000), was a leader of Egypt's

Wafd Party The Wafd Party (; ar, حزب الوفد, ''Ḥizb al-Wafd'') was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period from the end of World War I through the 1930s ...

. When President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

allowed the Wafd to emerge from a prolonged period of dormancy in 1984, Serageddin proved a skilful political operator given the limits imposed on a divided and decimated opposition, and made the ''

Al-Wafd ''Al-Wafd'' ( ar, الوفد meaning ''the Mission'' in English) is the daily newspaper published by the Wafd party in Giza, Egypt. History and profile ''Al-Wafd'' was launched in 1984. As the house organ of the liberal-democratic neo-Wafd part ...

'' newspaper an instant success through its Asfoura (Sparrow) column exposés of corruption and mismanagement. A minister by his early thirties, he held four portfolios in the 1940s, serving in the Wafd-led Government of 1950-52 as Minister of Interior and

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

. His political career was abruptly suspended as the Free Officers' coup neared. Put on trial, he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment but released two months later. Several periods of detention followed under Colonel Nasser. Serageddin did not return to the political landscape until 1978, when President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

, attempting to reinvigorate party pluralism, likened him to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

coming back from the grave. Political turbulence ensued, however, and Serageddin was one of a number to be imprisoned in 1981 in the twilight of Sadat's rule. The Wafd Party sprang from the delegation formed by the nationalist

Saad Zaghloul Saad Zaghloul ( ar, سعد زغلول / ; also ''Sa'd Zaghloul Pasha ibn Ibrahim'') (July 1859 – 23 August 1927) was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party. He led a civil disobedience ...

in 1918 to demand complete independence from the British, and was officially founded a year later. Serageddin upheld the party's tradition for democracy, bisectarianism and liberalism, but in courting the Muslim Brotherhood was thought to have exceeded a remit to broaden its popular appeal. He would later take credit for ordering police in Ismailia armed with rifles to engage in a futile battle against British troops using light artillery, but this merely precipitated the burning of Cairo a day later on 26 January 1952, and the Government's immediate dismissal. His political longevity typified Egypt's political ossification, and he was sometimes criticised for leading a party of the past rather than the future. However, the New Wafd Party survived as a significant opposition party, contributing to the

Egyptian Revolution of 2011 The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...

References

1911 births 2000 deaths Wafd Party politicians Interior Ministers of Egypt Finance Ministers of Egypt Egyptian pashas 20th-century Egyptian economists 20th-century Egyptian politicians {{Egypt-politician-stub