New cabinet lineup and priorities was the topic du jour for the nation’s columnists

The lineup and priorities of the incoming Madbouly Cabinet was the topic du jour for the nation’s columnists. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi might be pushing to change a large number of ministers to give the citizenry the feeling that his second presidential term will bring with it a sea-change in conditions and that the problems of the past four years are now behind us, Al Masry Al Youm’s Soliman Gouda suggests. Regardless of who’s in or out, the new government must mark the new term with a shift in priorities away from infrastructure and towards improving the country’s level of services and building up its human capital, Gouda says. Abbas El Tarabily takes to the pages of the same newspaper to offer an opposing viewpoint, saying that the theme of national projects that was the hallmark of the Ismail Cabinet should not be left behind.