Egyptian president Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi is facing criticism after a giant red carpet was laid over public roads for his motorcade during a trip to open a social housing project in Cairo.

Images of the scene prompted ridicule on social media, with a hashtag mocking the carpet trending in Arabic. A local newspaper devoted much of its front page on Monday to the incident.

It is laid out in a way to beautify the general area, so it gives a good impression Brig​​ Gen​ Ehab el-Ahwagy

“How is the president asking us to tighten our belts while the 4km red carpet says otherwise?” read a headline in Al-Maqal newspaper, whose editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Eissa, is one of Egypt’s most prominent TV commentators.



Sisi, who as military chief led the overthrow of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, has staked his legitimacy on reviving the economy after years of unrest, including by trimming costly state subsidies, a theme he touched upon at Saturday’s event.

He said the state spent about 40m Egyptian pounds (£3.5m) a day to provide clean water, with only part of the cost passed on to consumers. “One cubic metre of water that reaches you costs me this much, and you are taking it for that much, and the state is unable to continue this way,” Sisi said in a televised conference.

The military provided a rare public response to the furore over the carpet. Brig Gen Ehab el-Ahwagy explained on several talk shows on Sunday night that the carpet was not purchased by Sisi’s administration and the same one had been used for more than three years for similar occasions.

“It gives a kind of joy and assurance to the Egyptian citizen that our people and our land and our armed forces are always capable of organising anything in a proper manner,” Ahwagy told the TV talk show host Amr Adeeb.

“It is laid out in a way to beautify the general area, so it gives a good impression of the celebration that is being broadcast to the whole world.”