Iran: what can we expect from the new president?

In Iran, the new ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi has officially taken office after Iran's spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, confirmed the election in Tehran. Raisi will be sworn in before parliament today. Hopes that the political situation in the country will improve under the new president are unfounded, if not naïve, commentators say.

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Der Tagesspiegel (DE) /

No sign of an end to the repression

Freedom is a foreign word for the new president, writes Der Tagesspiegel:

“As a hardliner and loyal representative of the regime, the man has long been one of the declared opponents of a nuclear agreement. ... Raisi and the clerical system are also trying to push through the hard line internally. ... Raisi is also an advocate of uncompromising crackdowns on any kind of opposition. He is said to have been personally responsible for thousands of death sentences at the end of the 1980s. With him as president, nothing is likely to change in the fact that Iran is one of the most repressive states in the world. Promising people more freedom - that would never even occur to Ebrahim Raisi.”

De Telegraaf (NL) /

"Executioner from Tehran" legitimised by Brussels

De Telegraaf is outraged that the EU sent its senior diplomat Enrique Mora to Tehran for the inauguration:

“The EU's decision to be represented at the inauguration of Iranian President Raisi is incomprehensible. The visit comes just a week after Iran killed an EU citizen and a Briton in a drone attack on an oil tanker, according to several countries. ... The EU has chosen to embrace the regime in the naive hope of saving the nuclear deal. And this despite the fact that Iran is fully committed to building long-range missiles. ... By being present at the inauguration of Raisi - better known as the 'Executioner from Tehran' - Brussels is legitimising Iran's aggression.”

Tages-Anzeiger (CH) /

Young people want a fresh start

The old guard has been running Iran for too long, writes the Tages-Anzeiger:

“Forty years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power, the regime must fear that its Islamic Revolution is crumbling. The generation that took part in it and in the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq has grown old. The younger generation is for the most part unmoved by meaningless slogans like 'Death to America'. They want a decent life and a certain degree of freedom - and they see how the regime is failing to deliver. ... Iranians have used the means available to them to express their discontent and kept their distance from the farce of a presidential election arranged by Khamenei.”