CAIRO, 8 July 2004 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came home to Cairo yesterday after a slipped disc operation in a Munich hospital and an absence of 17 days. He returned to face both an outpouring of gratitude for his recovery, led by the government and ruling party, and opposition hopes that his back problem might inspire him to think about political changes.
Mubarak, 76, walked down the steps from his plane unaided, shook hands with a line of dignitaries and walked to his car in no apparent discomfort, witnesses said.
He left Cairo for Germany at short notice on June 20 amid rumors that he was seriously ill and worries about the future of the country if he could no longer govern.
In his 22 years as president of the Arab world’s most populous country, Mubarak has never named a vice president. But the media reassured Egyptians that his back problem was not serious and that he was running the country from his room in Munich’s Orthopaedic Center, where he had minimally invasive surgery on June 26. Since then he has received King Abdallah of Jordan, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and on Tuesday German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
