CAIRO — Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters pushed past barbed-wire fences installed by the army and marched on the presidential palace yesterday, calling for President Mohammed Morsi to “leave” a day after they say he offered no concessions to opposition demands.
Climbing over tanks of the Republican Guard, protesters streamed toward the palace as night fell yesterday, crossing a no-go zone set up around the compound’s perimeter.
The area witnessed deadly clashes on Wednesday, when supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group drove out crowds camped outside the palace. The clashes left at least six dead and hundreds injured, deepening the schism between the two sides.
Egypt’s political crisis spiraled deeper into bitterness and recrimination yesterday as thousands of Islamist backers of the president vowed vengeance at a funeral for men killed in bloody clashes earlier this week.
Each side is depicting the conflict as an all-out fight for Egypt’s future and identity. The opposition accuses Morsi and his Islamist allies of turning increasingly dictatorial to force their agenda on the country, monopolize power and turn Egypt into a religious state. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, and other Islamists say the opposition is trying to use the streets to overturn their victories in elections over the past year and stifle popular demands to implement Islamic sharia law.