The quarrel between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad dates back a long way. It's an internal conflict in the Islamic republic that started when the president was elected. The parliament has always supported Ahmadinejad. Well, until now. Khamenei is going to publicly distance himself from the president before the legislative elections on 14 March, and try to get rid of pro-Ahmadinejad figures during the election. He's got a huge advantage- he controls the Council of the Guardians, in charge of validating legislative election candidates.

Khamenei is expressing discontent with Ahmadinejad's economic policies, which the population is also frustrated by. Last year, forty economists, quite close to the authorities, wrote a public letter in which they denounced his policies and said that their incoherence would drive the country into a wall. Ahmadinejad has made promises, but the country is ruined. The local economic fabric is a in mess and the country depends almost exclusively on imports.

Iranians wonder where the money for oil goes. The price per barrel was under $53 in Khatami in 2004. Today it's $100. So where did the extra money go? The question of energy is brought up more often when there's an exceptionally cold spell. It reached -24°c in the north of Iran, a temperature that left between 300 and 400 dead. Tehran was blocked off for more than five days due to heavy snow. And the government seems incapable of doing anything about it. There's a text going round here at the moment. It says: ‘Oil money helps Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians, South Lebanese... Why not us?'"