Ten days before the presidential election in Iran, the campaign is intensifying between the six candidates in the running, who differ on the strategy to revive the economy, affected by severe international sanctions.
So far quiet, the campaign should come alive in the run-up to this hastily organized election to replace President Ebrahim Raïssi, who died in May in a helicopter accident.
The home stretch began with the first of five televised debates which brought together the six candidates on Monday evening.
For four hours, they detailed their solutions to resolve economic problems, a central concern of voters, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet.
The approximately 85 million Iranians are in fact faced with very high inflation, of the order of 40%, high unemployment and the record depreciation of the rial, the national currency, compared to the dollar.
The government nevertheless praises the good performance of growth, which amounted to 5.7% during the 12 months ended in March. He expects 8% for this year, thanks to the increase in hydrocarbon exports.
“I promise workers and retirees that we will strengthen the economy” in order to fight “against inflation” and “preserve their purchasing power,” Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the president of Parliament, declared during the debate.
In the absence of polls, this conservative candidate is considered by experts as one of the three favorites of the election, with Saïd Jalili, the former ultraconservative negotiator on the nuclear issue, and Massoud Pezeshkian, deputy of Tabriz (north). west) and former Minister of Health.
The latter has the heavy task of reviving the reformist movement which has lost in recent years the political influence it had since the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Lifting of sanctions
No reformer or moderate figure had been authorized to run in the 2021 presidential election, after having been disqualified by the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, a body dominated by conservatives. This election was easily won by Ebrahim Raïssi, the candidate from the conservative and ultraconservative camp, supported by the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
During the televised debate, three of the six candidates, including MM. Ghalibaf and Pezeshkian considered that priority should be given to the lifting of sanctions affecting the economy since the unilateral exit of the United States from the nuclear agreement in 2018.
Washington notably imposes an embargo on petroleum products, aeronautics and the mining sector. It prohibits the use of the dollar in commercial transactions with Iran.
“If we could lift sanctions, Iranians could live comfortably,” Mr. Pezeshkian assured Tuesday, asserting that, if elected, Iran would be “neither anti-West nor anti-East.”
For him, “it is impossible to achieve the objective of 8% growth” without reestablishing normal economic relations “with other countries”, including the West, who have completely deserted Iran in recent years.
One of his supporters, former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, recalled that Iran had benefited from “single-digit inflation and double-digit economic growth” following the agreement. on nuclear power concluded in 2015 with the great powers.
Another candidate, the conservative Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, estimated the amount of investments needed at “$250 billion”, particularly to modernize key oil and gas production sectors.
Because of the sanctions, “financial transfers have become impossible and our economy is blocked,” lamented Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the only religious candidate for the presidential election.
But for his competitor Alireza Zakani, the ultraconservative mayor of Tehran, “the problems of the Iranian economy are not linked to cruel American sanctions”. “We must promote the independence of the country”, in particular by “dedollarizing the economy”, he proposed.
During the three years of his presidency, Ebrahim Raïssi led a policy of opening “to the east”, in particular by strengthening economic ties with China and Russia, while mending with the Arab countries, his Saudi rival in head.
At the same time, relations have continued to deteriorate with Western countries, particularly since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October, with Tehran presenting itself as the primary supporter of the Palestinian Hamas movement against Israel.