Popular protests are also ongoing in Baghdad and in several southern Iraqi provinces, where most of the country's Shiite Muslims live. Shortly after the demonstrations started in August, many of the protesters were supportive of al-Abadi and his planned reforms.
Many of them said they would support him to the end if he managed to carry out the reforms he had suggested, especially those concerning corruption and improving state services to the general public. However over the past three months, the protestors seemed to have lost hope.
Last week for the first time al-Abadi met with some of the leaders of the protest movement. They told him they were not happy with the pace at which reform was progressing. “At the end of meeting with al-Abadi, he asked us if we would ask him to leave the job,” Jassim al-Hilfi, a Communist politician and one of the protest leaders, told NIQASH.
“And we told him that, yes, we would do that if he did not implement real reforms. Al-Abadi is losing the support of the demonstrators,” al-Hilfi continued. “The reforms that the government has announced are just ordinary decisions, not reforms.”
It is not just politics putting pressure on Iraq's Prime Minister. For some time now it has been clear a major financial crisis is looming for Iraq. Falling oil prices mean that the country's planned national budget will not cover the country's expenses – most of Iraq's income is from oil sales. Add to this the extra costs required to manage the current security crisis and it is clear Iraq is in serious financial trouble.
At a recent meeting with a group of university staff and professors, al-Abadi spoke openly about looming financial problems; in the past he's been more subtle on this issue or downplayed the problem. “The state's revenues will be IQD40 trillion next year,” al-Abadi told the group. “But the salaries of state employees alone add up to IQD50 trillion.”
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