“I am more worried than sad,” summarizes Mohadeseh Jalali, concerned about the future of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raïssi, an ultraconservative to whom a huge crowd paid their last respects on Wednesday in Tehran.
This 32-year-old housewife is not the only one concerned about the uncertainties raised by the disappearance of the president who led the country since 2021.
“How do I find someone like him?” I am really worried about this,” also admits Mohsen, a 31-year-old cleric, interviewed by AFP in the huge procession that formed in the center of Tehran.
“As far as I know, we don’t have anyone of his stature,” adds this man who came specially from the holy city of Qom, who refused to give his name.
A presidential election will be held on June 28 to replace Mr. Raïssi, who died on Sunday in a helicopter crash which left seven others dead, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
The major electoral maneuvers will begin after the five days of national mourning announced on Monday.
At this stage, no favorite emerges to succeed the ultraconservative Raïssi, who was elected in 2021 in the first round of a vote from which reformer and moderate candidates had been excluded.
“Not focused on the West”
“I don’t know what will happen” in these elections, says Mohsen. “Among the potential candidates, there is none who has a consensus among the conservatives.”
The camp of conservatives and ultraconservatives further strengthened its hold on political life with the legislative elections in March, in which many candidates of other tendencies were unable to participate.
In three years of presidency, Ebrahim Raïssi managed with a firmness criticized by part of the population a popular protest movement in 2022, he was confronted with an economic crisis aggravated by American sanctions and a worsening of tensions with the sworn enemy Israel, which have been exacerbated since October by the war in the Gaza Strip.
“I voted for him in the presidential elections of 2017 (where he was defeated) and 2021. I have no regrets at all,” says Mostafa, recognizing however that “the government’s economic performance can be criticized.”
This 37-year-old cleric, who refused to give his name, remembers above all that Raïssi “was not focused on the West” and “did not forget the countries” of the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia with which Iran mended in 2023 after years of estrangement.
For Mohsen, Iran has experience managing delicate successions since the 1979 revolution. He cites the example of that of Imam Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, after his death in June 1989.
It was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then president, who was designated to occupy the post of head of state, and “there was no problem”, according to him.
Ebrahim Raïssi, who was also Ayatollah, was considered one of the favorites to succeed the latter, in power for 35 years and aged 85.
The name of the supreme leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is also cited by experts.
Whatever happens, says Mohsen, “the question of leadership is a divine one. Whatever God wants will happen.”
Having taken his place in the immense procession, civil servant Ali Mousavi Nejad testified that he wanted to pay “tribute to the victims”. But also “send a message to the enemies of the Islamic Republic: the path traced by the martyrs continues and they cannot dissuade Iranians from supporting the revolution,” adds this 35-year-old man.