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EU Observer (12 January 2026)

Babak RezaeeDaryakenari

The protests that began in Iran in late December 2025 have escalated rapidly. What was initially portrayed in Western coverage as another episode of "economic unrest" has, over recent days, turned into sustained mass mobilisation across cities nationwide, with protesters returning to the streets night after night. 

While triggered by an economic shock, the protests have converged on a clear political demand: the end of the Islamic Republic. What is unfolding is not merely a domestic crisis, but a political rupture with direct implications for Europe's security and energy interests, as well as its strategic posture toward Russia and the Middle East.

Iran's crisis is not reducible to economic dissatisfaction alone. It is rooted in decades of political exclusion, systemic corruption, and a state that has lost both the willingness and the capacity to provide basic economic security.

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