New Prime Minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi appealed to downtrodden Iraqis for their support on Saturday hours after his appointment by President Barham Salih, but protesters were already rejecting the head of government as a stooge of the political elite.
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In Baghdad and southern cities, demonstrators who have camped out for months demanding the removal of Iraq's ruling class - and had succeeded in toppling the outgoing prime minister - chanted "we reject Allawi" and held posters of his face with a red cross through it.
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Salih appointed Allawi after squabbling lawmakers from rival parties had failed for two months to decide on a successor to Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in November during mass unrest. Allawi has one month to form a government and will lead it until early elections are held, for which there is no date set. The former communications minister will likely get stuck between parties vying for cabinet posts, prolonging the political deadlock.
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For the demonstrators, Allawi, the former communications minister under ex-premier Nuri al-Maliki - who presided over the fall of multiple Iraqi cities to Islamic State in 2014 and is accused of pro-Shi'ite sectarian policies - is part of the ruling elite and therefore unacceptable.
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Allawi will need to contend with militia groups and parties backed by Iran which have come to dominate Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Since the defeat of Daesh in Iraq in 2017, those militias have gained even greater power in parliament and in the economy.
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Some of those militias have been involved, alongside security forces, in the crackdown against protesters who began their demonstrations in October. Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest.
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Iraq is facing its biggest crisis since the military defeat of Daesh in 2017. A mostly Shi'ite popular uprising in Baghdad and the south challenges the country's mainly Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim ruling elite.
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Allawi is less of a household name than his two predecessors, but he certainly carries traits that have been lacking in all post-Saddam premiers. For starters, he carries no sectarian agenda, having resigned from government office in the past objecting to the sectarianism of his then boss Nouri Al Malki. Secondly, he was never on Iranian payroll and never lived in Tehran.
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