Iraq: Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr mobilizes hundreds of thousands of followers in Baghdad
Supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr during an outdoor Friday prayer in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 15, 2022. AP - Hadi Mizban
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
Without participating in it himself, the Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr mobilized hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad on Friday July 15 for a collective prayer, a gesture intended to put pressure on his adversaries to speed up the formation of a government. .
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Since the October 2021 legislative elections, the 42 million Iraqis, exhausted by a major economic and social crisis, are still waiting to find out who their next prime minister will be.
The majority Shiite parties have failed to provide the oil-producing country with a new head of government.
And the crisis deepened on June 12 with the resignation of 73 parliamentarians from Moqtada al-Sadr's current, a gesture intended to protest against this inertia.
With his title of "
sayyed
", a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Moqtada al-Sadr has had considerable weight in the Iraqi political landscape since the fall of dictator
Saddam Hussein
, overthrown by a coalition led by the United States in 2003 and hanged in 2006.
The great Friday collective prayer that he called in Baghdad came into full play, as a way of saying that he could easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of people, even by more than 40°.
"
Al-Sadr manages to mobilize his followers, and even outside his movement, for two reasons,
analyzes Hardy Mède, researcher at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science, specialist in Iraq, at the microphone of
Martin Chabal
of the service RFI International.
Firstly because it is a movement which has an extremely important experience of mobilizations, an experience which has been acquired over the past ten years, the Sadrist movement has regular recourse to the streets.
And secondly, it is also a very widely established movement, very organized on the local scene.
It is a movement that relies on a reservoir of very mobilized activists on the ground.
Sadr today is trying to remobilize the same movement, (to give it a breather) to say that, in any case, even if we are no longer in Parliament, we are still capable of mobilizing, of having recourse to the streets , and then also weigh on the political dynamics.
»
► To read also:
Resignation of elected Sadrists: "Iraq is in an unprecedented situation"
“
Thanks be to God for this great victory (…) Thank you Friday worshipers
,” Moqtada al-Sadr tweeted.
Absent from this gathering in the Sadr City district, the Shiite leader left it to a relative, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Jayachi, to deliver the Friday prayer sermon, in the form of an apostrophe to his opponents of the Coordination Framework .
Because it is to this alliance of Shiite parties, some of which are close to Iran, that Mr. Sadr now leaves the responsibility of forming a government.
Chaining the meetings, the caciques of the Coordination Framework have not yet managed to agree.
pic.twitter.com/ixXvvqBrPj
— مقتدى السيد محمد الصدر (@Mu_AlSadr) July 15, 2022
A call to action
"
We are at a difficult crossroads in the formation of government, entrusted to people we do not trust
," Sheikh al-Jayachi told the crowd of worshipers gathered on al-Fallah Avenue, in this written sermon by Moqtada al-Sadr.
Some "
that we have already seen in the exercise have not been up to
it", he added.
And as a warning to his adversaries, the Shiite leader notably attacked
Hachd al-Chaabi
, a militia of ex-paramilitaries now integrated into the regular forces that many Iraqis accuse of being the fake Iran's nose at home and to commit abuses.
“
We have to reorganize it and get rid of the unruly elements
,” he said,
foreign interventions
", without, however, pointing the finger at any particular country.
The sermon also called
for 'steering the Hashd out of politics and business
', as the powerful coalition has a political showcase and deputies in parliament in the Coordinating Framework, and some of its leaders are accused of busyness.
► To read also:
Iraq: the Shiite pro-Iran coalition now has a majority in Parliament
“
Al-Sadr wanted to show his mobilizing capacity, send a message that sends to the Coordination Framework.
He clearly says: "If you intend to form the government, well the Prime Minister must be someone who also responds to the demands of the Sadrist movement
", explains Hardy Mède.
According to the researcher, you really have to choose a person who is also accepted by Sadr.
And in the sermon, it is clearly said that people who have been in power in the past cannot return to government.
It targeted ex-Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki
.
“
We see that, all the same, within the Coordination Framework, there is a kind of disintegration,
notes Hardy Mède.
They understood that without Sadr it would not be possible to go to a new government, and that in any case even if they manage to form a government without Sadr, this government will not be able to survive
.
»
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Iraq
Nouri al-Maliki
Iran