Identity is the product of intersubjective agreement among the population who make their agreement public by acting positively or negatively on those values. Identity means what we are. At the same time, identity has another element, and that is the public demarcation with what we are not. "Other" stabilizes our identity boundaries. "Other" is sometimes the enemy, sometimes competitors and sometimes those who think differently from us. The biggest danger for a political system is that it cannot differentiate between its wide range of "others". "Other" also has an identity and values, and by the way, "we" show that the values of the "other" are anti-values for us. "Other" role is very important in establishing "our" identity. "Other" often causes internal cohesion and convergence. There are "Other" types. Sometimes "Other" is external (external other). External other values are in conflict with intrinsic values. Sometimes "Other" is internal. Internal other whose values are defined as "different" from intrinsic values.

Apparently, in the presidential elections of 2024, a radical shift of power took place from a completely right-wing political force to a left-wing political force. The distinguishing feature of the 2024 election compared to the previous eras was that the shift of power took place from fundamentalists (which are interpreted as radical fundamentalists in Iranian political literature) to reformists. The reformists came to power in 1997. But in that year, they were replaced by the constructionist pragmatist government, which had a non-ideological approach and was basically considered a technocratic government. But in the recent elections, the reformers replaced those who had keyed the project of eliminating the reformers with the purification discourse since 2021. According to the political behavior of Iranians, naturally, by forming a government from their faction, reformists should also define the range of fundamentalists as "other," and at least in the government, they tried to purge them. But it did not happen. Mr. Pezeshkian, from the very beginning of entering the election campaign, defined an identity beyond the political faction for himself and the government and transferred the "other" from inside the government to outside the national borders. Mr. Pezeshkian did not define "us" as reformists and "others" as fundamentalists but defined "us" as all Iranians (slogan # for_Iran) and "others" as ill-wishers of Iran, including America and Israel, and the foreign opposition. He introduced unity within the sovereignty as a requirement for national unity and the key to confronting external threats, and for this reason, he met with popular support. Let's review the words of Mr. Pezeshkian during the elections: "Our fight is about power... As long as we don't have unity, we can't solve the problems of the people" and... The typology of voters for Mr. Pezeshkian, especially in the first round of elections, also showed that the majority of those who voted for him, voted for his personality and national approach, not for his faction and political orientation.

The honesty and commitment of Mr. Pezeshkian were also revealed to the sovereignty and the people during the selection of the cabinet. As he had promised, he chose a transnational cabinet based on the indicators of efficiency, cleanliness, and the consensus of the governing bodies in such a way that many reformists blamed him for choosing some ministers. However, the vote of confidence of the Islamic Consultative Assembly with a complete fundamentalist body showed to the cabinet of Mr. Pezeshkian that the selection of ministers was smart and aimed at creating national unity. When the parliamentarians saw the commitment of the president to his slogans, they accompanied him and, in a rare event, voted for confidence in all his ministries. An event that few political analysts believed. The vote of confidence of the twelfth parliament (which, apparently, has more new fundamentalists than fundamentalists) to all the cabinet of Mr. Pezeshkian's reformist government is a pleasant event in the history of the Islamic Republic, which should be considered a turning point in the political maturity of Iranians. For years, we heard in words that "we respect the difference of taste within the framework of the constitution", but in practice we witnessed the removal and exclusion of people from the train of sovereignty. Mr. Pezeshkian's government cabinet and the commendable performance of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the vote of confidence proved that now this word has turned into action. This pleasant event showed that the "domestic other" has been recognized in the Islamic Republic, and more importantly, we can differentiate between the "domestic other" and the "foreign other". Let's sit the first one next to us and have coexistence and like-mindedness with it distance ourselves from the second one and strengthen the collective identity in front of it.

It is predicted that this pleasant event will be the main driving force for making major decisions in domestic policy and foreign policy.

Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, a senior expert at the Institute for Political and International Studies

 (The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the IPIS)