Iran: files await Ebrahim Raïssi, the population awaits change
A photo provided by the Iranian presidency on August 4, 2021 shows new President Ebrahim Raïssi during a working session in Tehran.
- IRANIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
6 mins
The new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raïssi, officially takes office this Thursday, August 5 with his swearing-in before Parliament.
He must form his government to gain the confidence of the deputies.
The ultraconservative is expected on several files.
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Ebrahim Raïssi's voters expect swift decisions to help them emerge from the misery into which more and more Iranians are sinking.
It is also seen as the solution to overcome the corruption which weighs heavily on the country's finances.
But another part of the population fears above all a regression of freedoms in Iran, which are already very limited.
A bill is currently under discussion in Parliament to strengthen control over the internet and social networks.
In the southwest of the country
protests
began in mid-July in the Khuzestan region, which is subject to severe water shortages and where temperatures are rising to 50 degrees. Their repression has already left at least ten dead. Some fear that it will harden unless the new president prefers above all else to try to win the confidence of a population whose majority abstained from his election.
Be that as it may, this movement of revolt will be a test for Ebrahim Raïssi, according to the specialist Thierry Coville, researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations: “
The authorities know that we should not repeat the experience of 2019 with severe repression and hundreds of deaths. They are careful. The Supreme Leader even said that the people of Khuzestan were right to demonstrate, etc. So this is going to be an interesting test for Raïssi, because there is really a big problem of trust. If he continues to use repression - and it was still his software when he was Minister of Justice - well the gap between the Iranian people and the government will widen.
"
► See also: NGOs accuse Iran of illegal use of force against demonstrators
For the vast majority of Iranians, it is the same priorities that come back: the economic situation, unemployment, inflation or even the marriage of young people, as affirmed by Ali, aged 45, of liberal profession, as our correspondent in Tehran,
Siavosh Ghazi
met:
“
It won't change anything.
It might get even worse, he
believes.
The first priority is poverty and then unemployment.
If they solve these two problems, the other things will be sorted out bit by bit.
But unfortunately they don't and don't think about these things.
"
Ebrahim Raïssi himself drew up a gloomy assessment of the economic situation, citing an inflation of 44% or a high budget deficit.
This does not bode well for a rapid improvement in the situation.
Hope for a return to the nuclear deal
Many like Ali do not expect much from the new government.
This is the case of Parsa, a 31-year-old street vendor, who hopes for a normalization of relations with the United States.
"
We expect the president to improve the economic situation,
" he said.
Work for young people.
He must be thinking of singles.
Young people over 30 or 35 are still single.
He must think of these young people.
Internationally, if we find an agreement with the United States, that will be great.
"
Internationally, the West is impatient with the resumption of negotiations for a return of the United States to the nuclear agreement. The
Supreme Guide
had announced a resumption of
negotiations
upon the inauguration of Ebrahim Raïssi. They first resumed in April under the leadership of the new American president. Its foreign minister Antony Blinken recalled last week that the ball is now in the Iranian court. The specialist Thierry Coville, researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, is rather optimistic about possible progress on this issue. "
I think the Americans understood that if they continued with the logic of asking the Iranians to open negotiations on Iran's regional policy and Iran's ballistics program, they would not move forward. They understood that they must first come back to the 2015 agreement. On the Iranian side, they will surely have a tougher position than the previous government in terms of negotiations. But they are very pragmatic: Iran is in a serious economic crisis, the "tough guys" know very well that [an agreement] would be beneficial for the Iranian economy and the people if the American sanctions are lifted, in particular the oil embargo . So I think they want a deal.
"
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Iran
Ebrahim Raisi