Consensus is a two-way street
Consensus is a two-way street. The idea of a national consensus policy proposed by the President as a general policy for running the fourteenth government is considered an old policy in the history of political theories worldwide.
Simply put, it means that regardless of the political wing or ideology of the President, instead of purifying the government with his political allies, he engages in interaction and political exchange with other powerful factions in his country. In exchange for handing over some important positions and posts, he secures their cooperation and support in all branches of power to advance his goals.
There is no doubt that Masoud Pezeshkian is truly a reformist figure. However, after assuming the presidency, he adopted this thought and political program, believing that a national consensus government is the only way to save the country and its people from the existing problems.
He has concluded that a purely reformist government, no matter how much it might satisfy its like-minded supporters and followers in the short term, will soon face dissatisfaction due to the inability to solve the country’s issues. This is because the conservative faction, which currently holds the absolute majority of decision-making and powerful positions in the country, will not allow him to fulfill any of his promises.
In his election campaigns, Pezeshkian pointed out the most significant problems of the people and promised to address them. Issues such as the economic crisis and unemployment caused by sanctions, as well as filtering, the morality police, and FATF, were mentioned by Pezeshkian. He concluded that by creating a national consensus government and involving conservatives in the government, he could solve the existing problems.
However, the issue of handing over the most sensitive government posts and positions to the opposing faction has caused widespread disillusionment and despair among the people, especially political activists, campaigners, and Pezeshkian’s supporters across the country. For this reason, we intend to politically examine the effects and consequences of this action by the President in this writing. Simply put, if the President has reached an agreement in a behind-the-scenes interaction with the opposing factions that, in exchange for handing these positions to rivals, they will also cooperate with the government in solving the country’s current problems, and if the opposing factions keep their promises and the aforementioned problems are resolved in the short term, this will undoubtedly lead to societal satisfaction.
Realistically, we must say that, in that case, it doesn’t make much difference to the general public whether Iskandar Momeni, a conservative, is the Minister of the Interior or Abdullah Nouri, a reformist, although the discontent of reformist elites will remain. In that case, it should be said that Masoud Pezeshkian can hope for the direct vote of the masses in the second term of the presidential election and not worry about the lack of support from reformist organizational activists. However, if the opposing faction does not fulfill its promises and does not cooperate in solving these problems, it must be said that a major political catastrophe will occur, the loser of which will not only be Masoud Pezeshkian but the entire system. Because in that case, the failure to solve the aforementioned problems based on what people see will erode their trust in the reformist discourse of a presidential candidate, the widespread support of the people for him, and placing him in the presidency, and then taking actions completely contrary to the announced slogans and programs and failing to solve the important problems of society.
In that case, unfortunately, no hope or possibility, at least from a rational perspective, seems to exist to bring people to the ballot boxes, which symbolize the legitimacy of the system. This means that even based on the principle that preserving the system is the most important duty, if the system wants to give this opportunity to Pezeshkian or anyone else after him in the second term to undertake comprehensive reforms that attract public attention, unfortunately, it will be difficult to convince anyone to come to the ballot box just one more time to solve the problems. This way, it is not just Pezeshkian, but the Islamic Republic of Iran that suffers damage and loss.
As a result, it must be acknowledged that now that the President has endured the reproaches of his supporters and followers by adhering to the slogan of consensus and handing over the most sensitive government posts to the opposing faction, they will also act within the framework of the national consensus government to fulfill their duties and responsibilities for preserving and strengthening their desired system.
