Iran’s snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi may have revived Iran’s reform movement.
Disillusioned voters who had abstained from participating in the June 2021 presidential election and the parliamentary election in May this year rallied to the progressive candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon who promised to improve people’s livelihoods and reduce social tensions. Those commitments, combined with his informal style of attire and speech, were enough to defeat the archconservative candidate Saeed Jalili by 10%.
But support from reformists does not necessarily place Pezeshkian in the reformist camp. He himself resists that label, as well as the idea that he represents a continuation of the moderate Hassan Rouhani’s presidency between 2013 and 2021. Like Rouhani, Pezeshkian sees better relations with the West and an end to sanctions as a strategic imperative for Iran. But beyond that, his policies are likely to be different from Rouhani’s in important respects.