Iran’s incumbent moderate president, Hassan Rouhani — who is seeking a second term — has changed his approach ahead of the May 19 presidential elections. In the past few days, Rouhani has become unprecedentedly straight and clear in his speeches, injecting more hope in his supporters.
Since the beginning of the presidential election campaigns, conservative candidates — namely Ebrahim Raisi, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Mirsalim — have been attacking the moderate government of Rouhani, saying he has been unsuccessful in solving people’s problems such as unemployment. And from the beginning, Rouhani unexpectedly didn’t answer many of the criticisms and only tried to explain his plan for the second term, a decision that made his supporters angry. Now he has changed his tactic, responding to every challenge laid forth by his conservative rivals.