My take is that if he knew what he was doing, he would never have gotten into this position. To my mind, he’s very seriously misjudged the public reception to his grab for power.

I think he’s hoping to buy time, to see if he can salvage his position. I doubt that buying time will work for him, though, as his coalition is likely to fall if he’s seen as weak and vacillating.

This gives me hope that he’s between a rock and a hard place. Though who knows, he’s survived a lot of upheavals before.