40 Middle East & Africa The Economist February 20th 2021
Daves de Sousa has cut wasteful spending.
In fact, she says, the imftold her to go easy
in some areas, protecting funding for
health and education. Given the fund’s rep-
utation for promoting austerity, this was “a
positive surprise”, she says.
Her privatisation plans have also been
welcomed. Under Mr dos Santos there was
little separation between party, state and
economy. Sonangol, the state oil company,
owned businesses in nearly every industry.
The finance minister wants it to sell shares
to the public and for 194 state firms or as-
sets to be sold. There have been delays; just
34 sales have taken place. But, says Ms
Daves de Sousa, private firms must be the
“main driver” of growth and diversifica-
tion away from oil. When The Economist
asks whether the mplais still Marxist, she
laughs: “In our hearts, yes; in reality, no.”
Most Angolans have yet to see much
benefit. Annual inflation is around 25%.
Last year there were protests in some ci-
ties. People want an end to suffering, but
also for the president to live up to his
promises on tackling corruption.
Angolan prosecutors have gone after
some of those at the very top of the old re-
gime, including the “royal family”. In Au-
gust, José Filomeno dos Santos, son of the
former president, was one of four men
found guilty of trying to defraud the cen-
tral bank. Authorities have frozen assets of
Isabel dos Santos, the former head of So-
nangol, and daughter of the ex-president.
(She denies any wrongdoing.)
Yet for many Angolans the anti-corrup-
tion drive appears selective and excludes
people close to the current government.
This, coupled with a brutal crackdown on
some protests, suggests that there are lim-
its to how much an outfit like the mplacan
change. Mr Lourenço has consolidated his
position within the ruling party. He is
pleasing outsiders with some of his eco-
nomic policies. But it is hard to stay pop-
ular with ordinary Angolans when the cost
of food is soaring. The danger for the presi-
dent is that, having raised expectations, he
cannot, or will not, fulfil them. Most favoured debtor
Chinese loans to Africa, $bnSource: CARI3020100
2000 05 10 1815Angola Other African countriesIranian politicsThe agitator
A
s members of the Iranian regime
marched through the capital, Tehran,
to mark Revolution Day on February 10th,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held his own
gathering. The former president, an irrita-
nt to clerics and liberals alike, had his fans
gather outside his flat in a modest neigh-
bourhood of Tehran, where they asked God
to grant him a third term in office. The po-
lice eventually dispersed the crowd for
gathering without a licence. With no hint
of irony, Mr Ahmadinejad (pictured) then
accused the relatively moderate current
president, Hassan Rouhani, of “encroach-
ing on the sanctity of liberty”.
Mr Ahmadinejad did plenty of that
when he was in office. In 2009, after win-
ning a second term in a fishy election, he
crushed the largest protests in Iran since
the revolution in 1979. His foes saw him as
a populist troublemaker. Even his power-
ful allies grew tired of him. But as Iran
gears up for an election in June, Mr
Ahmadinejad is considering another run.
Polls say he is the favourite—if the clerics
let him stand. “He has immense populari-
ty, especially among less educated and less
affluent Iranians,” says Sadiq Zibakalam, a
political scientist.
Mr Ahmadinejad got his start in politics
at university during the revolution, when
he co-founded a group uniting revolution-
ary student factions. Some people have ac-
cused him of being directly involved in the
storming of the American embassy in Teh-
ran and the taking of hostages. Mr Ahmadi-nejad denies this (apparently he thought
the Soviet embassy was a more deserving
target). He later joined the Basij, a militia
run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (irgc), the regime's most powerful
security force. But it was as mayor of Teh-
ran that he distinguished himself as a con-
servative man of the people. Appointed in
2003, he reversed liberal reforms put in
place by his predecessors and won over the
public by, for example, helping street-
sweepers clear the rubbish.
Iran held a presidential election in- Then, as now, the public was angry
with corrupt insiders rigging the economy.
Many saw Mr Ahmadinejad as someone
who would take on the elite and clean
things up. His scruffy checked shirts and
use of slang in campaign speeches were a
contrast to the clerics. Yet he was also sup-
ported by conservative voters and, most
importantly, by the supreme leader, Aya-
tollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Ahmadinejad became the first and
only layman to win the presidency since - During two controversial terms (from
2005 to 2013) he denounced America, Israel
and the Arab states, souring relations. At
home he increased spending and main-
tained subsidies, winning over the poor
but racking up huge deficits in spite of re-
cord oil revenues. He also struggled with
the clerics over personnel matters, among
other things. They supported his re-elec-
tion in 2009 and the quashing of protests,
but the animosity between them grew.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mulling another run for the presidency—and
espousing better relations with AmericaA man who knows how to please crowds, or disperse them violently