Cairo struggles for normalcy in face of protests

The confidence, echoed by state-controlled media that have begun acknowledging the protests after days of the crudest propaganda, suggested both sides believed the uprising’s vitality may depend on their ability to sway a population still divided over events that represent the most fundamental realignment of politics here in nearly three decades.

“Now it feels like Hosni Mubarak is playing a game of who has the longest breath,’’ said Amur el-Etrebi, who joined tens of thousands in Tahrir Square yesterday.

In a sign of the tension, US officials described as “unacceptable’’ statements by Vice President Omar Suleiman that the country was not ready for democracy, but they showed no sign that they had shifted away from supporting Suleiman, a man widely viewed here as an heir to Mubarak.

After demonstrating an ability to bring hundreds of thousands to downtown Cairo, protest organizers have sought this week to broaden their movement, acknowledging that simple numbers are not enough to force Mubarak’s departure.

The government — by trying to divide the opposition, offering limited concessions, and remaining patient — appears to believe it can weather the biggest challenge to its rule.

Underlining the government’s perspective that it has already offered what the protesters demanded, Naguib Sawiris, a wealthy businessman who has sought to act as a mediator, said: “Tahrir is underestimating their victory. They should declare victory.’’

Cairo’s chronic traffic jams returned yesterday as the city began to adapt to the sprawling protests in Tahrir Square as well as the tanks, armored personnel carriers, and soldiers who continued to block some streets. Banks again opened their doors as people lined up outside, and some shops took newspapers down from windows, occasionally near burnt-out vehicles still littering some streets.

The government has sought to cultivate that image of the ordinary, mobilizing its newspapers and television to insist that it was reexerting control over the capital after its police utterly collapsed Jan. 28.

The Cabinet yesterday held its first formal meeting since Mubarak reorganized it after the protests. Officials announced that the stock market, whose index fell nearly 20 percent in two days of protests, would reopen Sunday and that 6 million government employees would receive a 15 percent raise in April.

As in the past, the government has swerved between crackdown and modest moves of conciliation. In harrowing raids it arrested 30 human rights activists but released them by Sunday.

Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive and an organizer of the revolt, was freed yesterday after disappearing nearly two weeks ago.

During his disappearance, human rights activists became convinced that he was being held by the authorities for inspiring some of the young Egyptian political organizers to use technology, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to help promote the protests on Jan. 25.

Habib Haddad, a Boston-based businessman and a good friend of Ghonim’s, said he spoke to him after his release. “Not sure I ever heard someone that happy and emotional,’’ Haddad posted on Twitter.

In scenes yesterday that were most remarkable for having become so familiar, tens of thousands returned to Tahrir Square, where vendors sold cigarettes, coffee, and sweet potatoes.

The very joviality has seemed to worry some organizers, who have sought to recapture the initiative from a government determined to wait them out. Protest leaders have called for a general strike today as part of a “Week of Steadfastness.’’

They have also considered trying to organize more large-scale demonstrations in other Egyptian cities and acts of civil disobedience like surrounding the state television headquarters. Some protesters have contended that their very presence in Tahrir Square, where crowds have surged past 100,000 several times, is enough.