Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s attack on “fraudulent institutions” controlled by hard-line clerics in a speech to parliament Dec. 10 has provoked a backlash against him by both conservative political opponents and street protesters fed up with the poor state of governance and the economy.

Narges Bajoghli reports, “The protests that began on Dec. 28 in Mashhad were a response to Rouhani from hard-liners for his remarks on the budget as well as his other attempts to curtail hard-line forces. Much of the analysis on the reasons behind the sudden outpouring of protests points to its origin in hard-liners' attempts to organize anti-Rouhani rallies in the lead-up to the annual pro-regime 9 Dey rally, established by the supreme leader in 2009 to celebrate the suppression of the Green Movement. Indeed, Mashhad is notably home to two of Rouhani’s main rivals in the 2017 presidential elections, Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The intent was for the protests to culminate in a large 9 Dey rally [Dec. 30], but despite the hard-liners’ intentions, once people went into the streets, they eventually began to chant slogans against the supreme leader and the regime as a whole.”

The demonstrations have come as seemingly “independent” television stations linked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought to place Khamenei above the widespread frustration with Iran’s dismal economy, despite the sanctions relief offered by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in 2015.

These pro-Khamenei TV producers, according to Bajoghli, “quickly realized that they might once again lose control of the narrative if it continued in the direction it appeared to be headed. Regime production studios have thus begun to create videos that highlight economic anxieties and attack Rouhani’s handling of the government. These slick new productions are meant to look critical, but in the end, they reinforce a belief in the virtues and the leadership of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Avant TV is only the latest example of the ways in which factionalism within the Islamic Republic and opposition to the regime play out in the media landscape.”