Le Monde: Demonstrations in Iraq are a real threat to Abdul Mahdi's government

Iraqi demonstrators express their rejection of the entire ruling political class and express their determination to continue the movement "until the fall of the regime."

The writer Helen Solon, in a report on the newspaper "Le Monde" French, that after days of demonstrations strongly suppressed in Baghdad and cities in southern Iraq, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi became the subject of many criticism.

While there are protesters, who have expressed their determination to continue their movement until the "fall of the regime", political pressure on the government is increasing.

On Friday evening, Sadr's leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, who has the loyalty of the "Sairoun" bloc (the first force in parliament), called for Abdul-Mahdi's resignation and early parliamentary elections. Former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who heads the "victory" bloc (third parliamentary power), joined his call.

Faced with his first major social test, nearly a year after his government was formed, Adel Abdel Mahdi was unable to find words that could absorb the protesters' anger against corruption and unemployment and the decline in the quality of public services. At 2 am Friday, while most Iraqis were asleep, Abdul Mahdi went to the nation in a televised address.

While he said he understood the frustration of the population and wanted to respond to the "legitimate demands" of the demonstrators, he stressed that there was no "magic solution" to the country's problems.

Promises 15 years ago
After Friday prayers, while the curfew was in place and the internet service was interrupted, protests in Baghdad and the south resumed with the same intensity. Ali al-Sistani, the country's highest Shiite authority, lent his support to the protesters.

In his Friday sermon, Sistani's representative Ahmed al-Safi urged all parties to stop the violence, blaming the political class for failing to reform the country, and called on the government to "improve public services, create jobs, avoid nepotism in the public service and end corruption issues."

But in the face of the spread of repression, protesters considered the speech extremely cautious and expressed "rare" criticism of religious figures.

Friday saw fresh clashes between riot police and demonstrators, marked by an increase in the use of force.

In his testimony to Agence France-Presse, one protester said, "We have been hearing the same promises for more than 15 years. We will continue to protest. Either we die or we change the regime."

The demonstrators, who have rallied since Tuesday without the support of any political or religious organization, express their rejection of the entire political class ruling since 2003, accused of embezzling public funds and exploiting sectarianism for political purposes.

Civil war
Abdul-Mahdi, 77, found himself facing an impossible equation. "He has so far failed to make major reforms. He has become a hostage to powerful political and paramilitary factions that continue to control power by legal and illegal means," said Hareth Hassan, a research associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In the absence of a significant change in the management of political affairs, starting with the reform of the electoral law to allow for equitable representation and the distribution of State functions and resources on a partisan basis, there is little hope that conditions can improve effectively.

Abdul-Mahdi, the consensus candidate between the Shiite coalitions that led the 2018 legislative elections, and the US and Iranian shepherds, has no party support and no grassroots base. So far, the division at the heart of the Shiite camp has ensured its political continuity, but his government is besieged by growing tensions between Washington and Tehran in the region.

Anthony Pfaff, an associate researcher at the Atlantic Council, warned that "violence could escalate, especially if the militias decide to support a camp. If the demonstrations go hand in hand, it could lead to a new bloody civil war." Out of the crisis. "