He had already backed off twice: once in July 2012, when he abandoned his effort, under pressure from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, to reinstate the elected parliament; and once when he tried to remove the public prosecutor by making him Egypt’s ambassador to the Holy See.
A “Declaração Constitucional” de Morsi foi um passo decisivo - embora não democrático, polarizado, e, portanto, politicamente dispendioso - para quebrar o impasse.