Egypt’s new parliament, dominated by the moderate Muslim Brotherhood, will be the arena of next year’s struggles. The army, desperate to lock its political and economic privileges into any new constitution, will try to bully and cajole the Islamists into creating a “managed democracy”. This seems clever. After all, the liberals have been wiped out. The Brotherhood are keen not to rock the boat. And many Egyptians are fed up with protests. But it won’t work. The Brotherhood may be illiberal and cautious, but they’re not stupid. They will eventually use their new mandate to squeeze out the army, resulting in another wave of violence. This is the protection racket: it’s us, or chaos.