No one had bet on the MP from Tabriz when his candidacy in Iran’s presidential election was accepted by the Guardian Council along with the nominations of four other, all conservative, candidates.

However, the reformer Massoud Pezeskian he received the support of former presidents Mohammad Khatami (reformer) and Hassan Rouhani (moderate), as well as former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was at his side today when Iran’s president-elect delivered a thank-you speech to his supporters.

“The road ahead of us is difficult. It will not become easy except with your cooperation, empathy and trust. I extend my hand to you,” the 69-year-old heart surgeon previously wrote to X.

“Your votes have given hope back to a society immersed in an atmosphere of discontent,” he later said at the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, near Tehran. “I did not make false promises in this election. I didn’t say anything I can’t stand by.”

Citizens polled by AFP said they were happy for Massoud Pezeskian’s victory, but others said that they don’t believe there will be change.

“We are very pleased that Mr. Pezeskian won. We need an educated president to solve the economic problems,” said a 40-year-old architect.

“None of my buisiness. These candidates are only throwing slogans. When they take power, they do nothing for the people,” said a 50-year-old housewife.

Many Iranians call Masoud Pezeskian a “doctor”, who advocates constructive relations with the United States and European countries “to get the country out of its isolation”.

But the president of Iran has limited powers: he is charged with implementing, as head of government, the major political directions set by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, head of state, who also has the final say on strategic matters.

In his congratulatory message, Ayatollah Khamenei advised the newly elected president “to use the country’s multiple abilities, especially the abilities of the young revolutionaries, for its progress.”

According to Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group, Massoud Pezeskian’s victory “breaks a series of electoral contests that strengthened the dominance of the conservative camp in all centers of power.”

However, “the dominance of conservatives still exists in all institutions of the state,” he wrote in X. “And the limits of presidential power mean that Mr. Pezeskian should to fight a difficult battle to guarantee social and cultural rights that are more important in the domestic field and a diplomatic activity abroad”.

Massoud Pezeskian is a single father who raised his three children after the death of his wife and another child in a car accident in 1993. He presents himself as “the voice of the voiceless”.

The newly elected president is called upon to settle the issue of the Islamic headscarf requirement for Iranian women, one of the causes of an unprecedented wave of protests at the end of 2022. He has pledged to negotiate with Washington to resume talks on the Iranian nuclear programwhich are at ground zero after Washington under Trump pulled out of the 2015 international accord.