The world in question Podcast Podcast

An Iraqi autumn?

Back on the mass demonstrations of the Iraqi youth, violently repressed by the authorities. How to explain this social conflagration in Baghdad and in the southern Shiite of the country?

As often in this kind of movement, there is a triggering factor. In this case, it was the decision of the Iraqi government to sack Abdel-Wahab Al-Saadi, the hero of the fight against the Islamic State group , which set fire to the powder. The dismissal of this man, respected by millions of young Iraqis, has been interpreted as the new maneuver of a corrupt political class. Added to this is a social breeding ground that has been explosive for years in Iraq. There have been strong demonstrations already in 2015 and 2016, and then in the summer of 2018.

It is always the same situation that is denounced: the corruption of politicians, accused of serving their personal interests rather than that of the country. And then their inability to carry out the reforms necessary to overcome the evils that undermine Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 : infrastructure beyond age, deficient public services, especially for access to the drinking water and electricity.

Protesters from the country's youth

It's mostly young people who are demonstrating. A bit like a post-Saddam Hussein generation, born a few years before the fall of the Iraqi dictator and now twenty years old. She did not know the iron fist of Saddam Hussein, but suffered the troubles that followed the American intervention. Notably the interfaith struggles between the Shiite majority, which has recovered much of the power, and a Sunni minority who regrets the good old days of Saddam Hussein, when she led Iraq. And then the struggle also against the US occupier, the regular and deadly attacks, and finally the emergence of the Sunni organization of the Islamic State, which has reigned terror on one third of the territory for three years, between 2014 and 2017.

► Also to listen: Towards the end of the Islamic State organization?

Having grown up in such an environment, she would like to have at least a place in Iraqi society. While unemployment of 18/30 years reaches 25%. Hence this sudden and violent explosion. This brutal and sometimes deadly confrontation with the police.

Iraqi power overtaken by this movement

So how far can this face-to-face go? Hard to say, but in four days things went very fast. Despite the repression, despite the curfew in Baghdad and several cities in the south of the country, and despite the almost total cut of the Internet, the protests continue. The Green Zone, the nerve center of power, which had just been made accessible to the people, was closed again.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, in office for just 11 months, assumes, but also says understand the legitimate demands of this youth very angry. In fact, it is clear that power is navigating by sight and is a little overwhelmed by this movement of an eruptive youth, which, in addition to its social demands, is increasingly demanding the fall of a regime that it considers rotten. - and too loyal to the big Iranian brother.