Ebrahim Raisi will assume the mantle of the Iranian presidency on Aug. 3 amid major crises for Iran. The country’s economy is reeling from U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, corruption and mismanagement are rife, and—perhaps most debilitating—huge parts of society are so disillusioned with the political process that less than half the electorate bothered to vote in last week’s presidential election. Raisi’s ability to weather these storms and deliver tangible improvements in governance and the lives of Iranian citizens will determine whether the Iranian system can maintain its legitimacy after the historically low turnout.
Raisi hails from the principlist camp of Iranian politics, which seeks to protect the ideology of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Principlists generally espouse conservative Islamic sociocultural norms and see an unavoidable clash between the interests of the West and an independent Iran. Raisi’s core challenge will be to assuage the concerns of his principlist base and simultaneously meet the needs of the larger part of society that has long since moved on from revolutionary fervor and is tired of the dismal economic-political status quo and intrusive laws regulating their lifestyles.
