Who might succeed Pope Francis? Nine possible candidates

Who might succeed Pope Francis? Nine possible candidates
Pope Francis leads the opening mass for the synod of bishops on the family at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, on October 3, 2015. (REUTERS/File)
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Updated 21 April 2025
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Who might succeed Pope Francis? Nine possible candidates

Who might succeed Pope Francis? Nine possible candidates
  • Francis initiated changes within the Vatican, emphasizing transparency, accountability financial reform, appointed more women to senior posts in its hierarchy
  • Francis appointed nearly 80 percent of cardinal electors who will choose next pope, increasing possibility his successor will continue his progressive policies

VATICAN CITY: Predict who the next pope will be at your peril.

An old Italian saying warns against putting faith, or money, in any presumed front-runner ahead of the conclave, the closed-door gathering of cardinals that picks the pontiff. It cautions: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”

But here are some cardinals who are being talked about as “papabili” to succeed Pope Francis, whose death at the age of 88 was announced by the Vatican on Monday. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of Marseille, French, aged 66.

According to the French press, he is known in some domestic Catholic circles as John XXIV, in a nod to his resemblance to Pope John XXIII, the round-faced reforming pope of the early 1960s.

Pope Francis once quipped that his successor might take the name of John XXIV.

Aveline is known for his folksy, easy-going nature, his readiness to crack jokes, and his ideological proximity to Francis, especially on immigration and relations with the Muslim world. He is also a serious intellectual, with a doctorate in theology and a degree in philosophy.

He was born in Algeria to a family of Spanish immigrants who moved to France after Algerian independence, and has lived most of his life in Marseille, a port that has been a crossroads of cultures and religions for centuries.

Under Francis, Aveline has made great career strides, becoming bishop in 2013, archbishop in 2019 and a cardinal three years later. His standing was boosted in September 2023 when he organized an international Church conference on Mediterranean issues at which Pope Francis was the star guest.

If he got the top job, Aveline would become the first French pope since the 14th century, a turbulent period in which the papacy moved to Avignon.

He would also be the youngest pope since John Paul II. He understands but does not speak Italian — potentially a major drawback for a job that also carries the title Bishop of Rome and requires a lot of familiarity with Roman power games and intrigues.

Cardinal Peter Erdo, Hungarian, aged 72

If Erdo is elected, he would inevitably be seen as a compromise candidate — someone from the conservative camp who has nonetheless built bridges with Francis’ progressive world.

Erdo was already considered a papal contender in the last conclave in 2013 thanks to his extensive Church contacts in Europe and Africa as well as the fact that he was seen as a pioneer of the New Evangelization drive to rekindle the Catholic faith in secularized advanced nations — a top priority for many cardinals.

He ranks as a conservative in theology and in speeches throughout Europe he stresses the Christian roots of the continent. However, he is also seen to be pragmatic and never clashed openly with Francis, unlike other tradition-minded clerics.

That said, he raised eyebrows in the Vatican during the 2015 migrant crisis when he went against Pope Francis’ call for churches to take in refugees, saying this would amount to human trafficking — seemingly aligning himself with Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

An expert in Church law, Erdo has been on a fast track his entire career, becoming a bishop in his 40s and a cardinal in 2003 when he was just 51, making him the youngest member of the College of Cardinals until 2010.

He has excellent Italian, and also speaks German, French, Spanish and Russian — which could help him thaw relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches after the deep chill of the war in Ukraine.

Erdo is not a charismatic speaker, but while this was once undoubtedly viewed as a serious drawback, it could potentially be seen as an advantage this time around if cardinals want a calm papacy following the fireworks of Francis’ rule.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Maltese, aged 68.

Grech comes from Gozo, a tiny island that is part of Malta, the smallest country in the European Union. But from small beginnings he has gone on to big things, appointed by Pope Francis to be secretary general of the Synod of Bishops — a heavyweight position within the Vatican.

Initially viewed as a conservative, Grech has become a torchbearer of Francis’ reforms within the Church for years, moving sharply with the times.

In 2008, several gay Maltese citizens declared they were leaving the Church in protest at what they saw as the anti-LGBT stance of the then pontiff — Pope Benedict.

Grech offered them little sympathy at the time, but speaking in the Vatican in 2014, he called for the Church to be more accepting of its LGBT members and creative in finding new ways to address contemporary family situations.

The following day, Pope Francis tapped him on the shoulder at breakfast and complimented him for the speech, marking him out for future promotion.

In 2018, Grech spoke about how he relished the challenges faced by the Church. “We are going through a period of change. And to me, this is a very positive thing,” he told the Malta Today newspaper. He warned that it would not remain relevant to modern society if it did not move beyond nostalgia for the past.

His views have won him some high-profile enemies, and conservative Cardinal Gerhard Muller memorably turned on him in 2022, belittling his academic profile and accusing him of going against Catholic doctrine.

Grech’s allies insist he has friends in both the conservative and moderate camps and that, because of his high-profile role, he is known by many cardinals, a clear advantage in a conclave where so many cardinals are relative unknowns to each other.

Coming from a tiny country, his election as pope wouldn’t create any diplomatic or geopolitical headaches.

He has stressed that he always seeks consensus over confrontation. But he has sometimes courted controversy. In 2016 he led a pilgrimage to pray for rain after meeting farmers worried about drought. A local newspaper said it was “a throwback to prehistoric attempts at inducing rain” but a few days after the event, it did indeed start to rain.

Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, Spanish, aged 79.

Omella is a man after Pope Francis’ own heart. Unassuming and good-natured, he lives a humble life despite his lofty title, dedicating his Church career to pastoral care, promoting social justice and embodying a compassionate and inclusive vision of Catholicism.

“We must not see reality only through the eyes of those who have the most, but also through the eyes of the poor,” he told the Crux news site in April 2022, in words reflecting Francis’ world vision.

He was born in 1946 in the village of Cretas in northeastern Spain. After being ordained in 1970 he served as a priest in a number of Spanish parishes and also spent a year as a missionary in Zaire, now called Democratic Republic of Congo.

Underscoring his dedication to social causes, from 1999 to 2015 he worked closely with Spain’s Manos Unidas charity, which tackles famine, disease and poverty in the developing world.

He became a bishop in 1996 and was promoted to archbishop of Barcelona in 2015. Just one year later, Francis gave him a red cardinal’s hat — a move seen as a clear endorsement of Omella’s progressive tendencies, which stand in contrast to more conservative elements that once dominated the Spanish Church.

Omella is a former president of Spain’s bishops’ conference. He had to deal with the fallout from an independent commission that estimated in 2023 that more than 200,000 minors may have been sexually abused by Spanish clergy over a period of decades.

Omella has repeatedly asked for forgiveness for the mismanagement of sexual abuse, but has denied that so many children were abused, with an internal Church investigation identifying just 927 victims since the 1940s.

“At the end of the day, numbers do not get us anywhere. The important thing is the people and to make amends as far as possible,” he said. “Blaming is not the way. The problem does not belong to the Church, it belongs to society as a whole.”

In 2023, Francis invited Omella to join his nine-member kitchen cabinet of cardinals to advise him on questions of governance.

If the conclave decides the Church needs a new approach, then this proximity will count against Omella.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Italian, Vatican diplomat, aged 70.

A punters’ favorite, Parolin is seen as a compromise candidate between progressives and conservatives. He has been a Church diplomat for most of his life and served as Pope Francis’ secretary of state since 2013, the year Francis was elected.

The position is similar to that of a prime minister and secretaries of state are often called the “deputy pope” because they rank second to the pontiff in the Vatican hierarchy.

Parolin previously served as deputy foreign minister under Pope Benedict, who in 2009 appointed him the Vatican’s ambassador in Venezuela, where he defended the Church against moves to weaken it by then-President Hugo Chavez.

He was also the main architect of the Vatican’s rapprochement with China and Vietnam. Conservatives have attacked him for an agreement on the appointment of bishops in communist China. He has defended the agreement saying that while it was not perfect, it avoided a schism and provided some form of communication with the Beijing government.

Parolin was never a front-line or noisy activist in the Church’s so-called Culture Wars, which centered on issues such as abortion and gay rights, although he did once condemn the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries as “a defeat for humanity.”

He has defended the Vatican’s power over local Church leaders, criticizing attempts in Germany to allow priests to symbolically bless same-sex couples. He said local Churches cannot make decisions that would end up affecting all Catholics.

A softly spoken and genteel person, Parolin would return the papacy to the Italians after three successive non-Italian popes — John Paul II of Poland, Benedict of Germany and Francis of Argentina.

He entered the Vatican’s diplomatic service just three years after his priestly ordination in 1980 so his pastoral experience is limited. But a factor in his favor is that he speaks a number of languages.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Filipino, aged 67.

Tagle is often called the “Asian Francis” because of his similar commitment to social justice and if elected he would be the first pontiff from Asia.

On paper, Tagle, who generally prefers to be called by his nickname “Chito,” seems to have all the boxes ticked to qualify him to be a pope.

He has had decades of pastoral experience since his ordination to the priesthood in 1982. He then gained administrative experience, first as bishop of Imus and then as archbishop of Manila.

Pope Benedict made him a cardinal in 2012.

In a move seen by some as a strategy by Francis to give Tagle some Vatican experience, the pope in 2019 transferred him from Manila and appointed him head of the Church’s missionary arm, formally known as the Dicastery for Evangelization.

He comes from what some called “Asia’s Catholic lung,” because the Philippines has the region’s largest Catholic population. His mother was an ethnic Chinese Filipino. He speaks fluent Italian and English.

Between 2015 and 2022, he was the top leader of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of more than 160 Catholic relief, social service, and development organizations around the world.

In 2022, Pope Francis fired its entire leadership following accusations of bullying and humiliation of employees, and appointed a commissioner to run it. Tagle, who was also removed from his role, had been nominally president but was not involved in the day-to-day operations, which were overseen by a lay director-general.

Announcing the pope’s dramatic decision, Tagle told a meeting of the confederation that the changes were a moment for “facing our failures.” It remains to be seen how the saga will impact Tagle’s chances at the papacy.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, N.J., American, aged 72.

It’s unlikely the world’s cardinals would pick the first ever US pope, but if they were up for that, Tobin would seem the likeliest possibility.

A former global leader of a major Catholic religious order known as the Redemptorists, the Detroit native has spent time in countries around the world and speaks Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese fluently. He also has experience in Vatican service and in top positions across the US church.

Tobin served a stint as second-in-command of a Vatican office from 2009-12, and was then named by Pope Benedict as archbishop of Indianapolis, Indiana. Francis promoted him to a cardinal in 2016, and later made him the archbishop of Newark.

In this latest role, Tobin, a big man known for his weight-lifting workout regime, has dealt with one of the highest-profile Catholic scandals in recent years. In 2018, then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, one of Tobin’s predecessors in Newark, was removed from ministry over accusations of sexual misconduct with seminarians.

McCarrick, who denies any wrongdoing, resigned as a cardinal and was later found guilty by a Vatican tribunal and removed from the priesthood.

Tobin won praise for his handling of the scandal, including a decision to make public previously confidential settlements made between the archdiocese and McCarrick’s alleged victims.

Tobin is the oldest of 13 children and has said he is a recovering alcoholic. He is known for an attitude of openness toward LGBT people, writing in 2017 that “in too many parts of our church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed.”

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Ghanaian, Vatican official, aged 76.

From humble beginnings in a small African town, Cardinal Peter Turkson has gone on to great things in the Church, making him a contender to become the first pope from sub-Saharan Africa.

He combines a long pastoral background of tending to congregations in Ghana with hands-on experience of leading several Vatican offices, as well as strong communication skills.

The fact he comes from one of the most dynamic regions for the Church, which is struggling against the forces of secularism in its European heartlands, should also bolster his standing.

The fourth son in a family of 10 children, Turkson was born in Wassaw Nsuta, in what was then called the Gold Coast in the British Empire. His father worked in a nearby mine and doubled as a carpenter while his mother sold vegetables in the market.

He studied at seminaries in Ghana and New York, was ordained in 1975, and then taught in his former Ghanaian seminary and did advanced Biblical studies in Rome.

Pope John Paul II appointed him archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 and 11 years later made him the first cardinal in the history of the West African state.

Promotions continued under John Paul’s successor, Benedict, who brought him to the Vatican in 2009 and made him the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace — the body that promotes social justice, human rights and world peace.

In that role, he was one of the pope’s closest advisers on issues such as climate change and drew much attention by attending conferences such as the Davos economic forum.

Francis merged Turkson’s department in 2016 with three other offices, leading to what some saw as a power struggle between him and another cardinal.

Turkson resigned from that role in 2021 and was appointed to head two pontifical academies on sciences and social sciences.

In 2023 he told the BBC he prayed “against” the possibility that he would be elected pope but some of his detractors said that given his media appearances it appeared he was campaigning for the job.

Matteo Maria Zuppi, Italian, archbishop of Bologna, aged 69.

When Zuppi got a promotion in 2015 and became archbishop of Bologna, national media referred to him as the “Italian Bergoglio,” due to his affinity with Francis, the Argentine pope who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Zuppi would be the first Italian pope since 1978.

Much like Pope Francis when he lived in Buenos Aires, Zuppi is known as a “street priest” who focuses on migrants and the poor, and cares little about pomp and protocol. He goes by the name of “Father Matteo,” and in Bologna he sometimes uses a bicycle rather than an official car.

In a city that loves its meat products, he once made waves when pork-free tortellini were served, as an option, for the feast day of Bologna’s patron saint. Zuppi called the Muslim-friendly move a normal gesture of respect and courtesy.

If he were made pope, conservatives would likely view him with suspicion. Victims of Church sex abuse might also object to him, since the Italian Catholic Church, which he has led since 2022, has been slow to investigate and confront the issue.

The Italian cardinal is closely associated with the Community of Sant’Egidio, a global peace and justice Catholic group based in the historic Rome district of Trastevere, where he spent most of his life as a priest.

Sant’Egidio, sometimes called “the United Nations of Trastevere,” brokered a 1992 peace agreement that ended a 17-year-old civil war in Mozambique, with the help of Zuppi as one of the mediators.

He has engaged in more diplomacy recently as papal envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, concentrating on efforts to repatriate children who Ukraine says have been deported to Russia or Russian-held territories.

Zuppi is a born-and-bred Roman with a fairly thick regional accent, and solid Catholic family roots.

His father Enrico was the editor of the Sunday supplement of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, while his mother’s uncle, Carlo Confalonieri, was also a cardinal.


Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says

Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says
Updated 05 August 2025
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Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says

Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says
  • Officials in Washington provided few details of Witkoff’s schedule
  • “Witkoff will be traveling to Russia this week,” Bruce said

WASHINGTON: US special envoy Steve Witkoff will be in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian leadership, a source familiar with the plan said on Tuesday.

Officials in Washington provided few details of Witkoff’s schedule.

“The president has noted, of course, that Special Envoy Witkoff will be traveling to Russia this week, so we can confirm that from this podium,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.

“What that will entail, I have no details for you.”

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, quoting aviation sources, said an aircraft believed to have Witkoff on board, had already left the United States.

US President Donald Trump, who has signaled frustration with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given him until this Friday to make progress toward peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions.


Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer

Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer
Updated 05 August 2025
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Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer

Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer
  • The Constitutional Council ruled that the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, a high-profile critic of the longtime president, “cannot be valid”
  • Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 contest

YAOUNDE: Cameroon’s constitutional court on Tuesday rejected the candidacy of President Paul Biya’s main opponent in October’s presidential election, the contender’s lawyer said.

The Constitutional Council ruled that the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, a high-profile critic of the longtime president, “cannot be valid and the immediate consequence is that he will not participate in the presidential race,” Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang told reporters after the hearing.

Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 contest.

Kamto, 71, who resigned from the MRC at the end of June, came second to Biya in the 2018 presidential election.

He sought to run this time as the candidate for the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM) and had officially submitted his candidacy last month.

In the 2018 election, Kamto stood for the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) but under the electoral code, parties wanting to run in the presidential election must have MPs in parliament or deputies in municipal councils.

The MRC boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections in 2020.

Constitutional Council president Clement Atangana ruled Kamto’s appeals were admissible for the court to hear but then judged them “unfounded.”

Another MANIDEM candidate submitted his candidacy, but that was also rejected.

After the ruling, Kamto did not comment.

MANIDEM president Anicet Ekane called it “a political decision. We take note of it.

“For the time being, we will not make a statement. We are reflecting on the decision and will decide,” said Ekane.

No media outlet was authorized to broadcast the Constitutional Council’s debates and decisions live.

The ministry of territorial administration announced the arrest of several people accused of disturbing public order near its premises.

Cameroon’s opposition is struggling to challenge the Biya administration.

On Saturday, a group of representatives from several parties published a statement in which they committed “to the choice of a consensus candidate around a common program” without any name being put forward.

In the run-up to Kamto’s exclusion, Human Rights Watch had warned that not allowing him to stand would raise concerns about the credibility of the electoral process.

“Excluding the most popular opponent from the electoral process will leave a shadow over whatever results are eventually announced,” warned Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at HRW.

The NGO warned that the move reflected “the government’s long-standing intolerance of any opposition and dissent, and comes amid increased repression of opponents, activists, and lawyers since mid-2024.”

So far, Cameroon’s Election Commission has approved 13 out of 83 prospective candidates,including Biya and former government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary.


German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say

German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say
Updated 05 August 2025
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German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say

German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say
  • The letter was addressed to senior Social Democrat lawmakers Rolf Muetzenich and Adis Ahmetovic
  • The two MPs have called for Germany to impose sanctions against Israel and a suspension of weapons deliveries

BERLIN: More than 100 Israeli academics have warned in a letter that a failure by Germany to put pressure on Israel could lead to new atrocities in Gaza.

“Further hesitation on Germany’s part threatens to enable new atrocities — and undermines the lessons learnt from its own history,” the academics wrote in the letter, addressed to senior Social Democrat (SPD) lawmakers Rolf Muetzenich and Adis Ahmetovic and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

On July 22, the two men, whose party is in the ruling coalition, had called for Germany to join an international coalition pushing for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, sanctions against Israel and a suspension of weapons deliveries.

The German government — comprising the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD — has sharpened its criticism of Israel over the manmade humanitarian catastrophe visited on Gaza’s 2 million people, but has yet to announce any major policy change.

Israel denies having a policy of starvation in Gaza, and says the Hamas militant group, responsible for an operation that killed 1,200 people in Israel in October 2023 and took hundreds more hostage, could end the crisis by surrendering.

Critics argue that Germany’s response to the war has been overly cautious, mostly owing to an enduring sense of guilt for the Nazi Holocaust, weakening the West’s collective ability to put pressure on Israel.

“If over 100 Israeli academics are calling for an immediate change of course ... then it’s high time we took visible action,” Ahmetovic told the public broadcaster ARD.

Britain, Canada and France have signalled their readiness to recognize a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory at the United Nations General Assembly this September.


Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach

Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach
Updated 05 August 2025
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Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach

Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach
  • Charities ask home secretary to ‘prevent the worst possible consequences … becoming a dire reality’
  • Thousands of Afghans who helped Britain remain in their country despite their information being leaked in 2022

LONDON: A group of more than 50 charities and lawyers has urged the UK government to let Afghans granted asylum bring their families with them after their identities were revealed in a data breach.

The leak in February 2022 saw the details of more than 100,000 Afghans who worked with the British accidentally shared online by a Ministry of Defence employee.

They included people who had worked as interpreters for the British Army, and others who applied for asylum under the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

The leak was hidden by the government through a legal mechanism called a superinjunction, making reporting it in the press illegal. The superinjunction was lifted by a court last month.

ARAP and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme do not allow applicants to sponsor relatives to come to the UK.

The group of charities, including Asylum Aid and modern slavery charity Kalayaan, wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asking her “to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality” and help take the relatives of those whose identities were leaked out of Afghanistan.

“The UK government has a moral responsibility to the Afghan people who continue to suffer, including now as a result of the data leak and have no choice but to seek safety elsewhere.

“The 2022 data breach directly exposed Afghans still in the country to a risk of reprisals they were not even aware of, and the High Court, in lifting the superinjunction, recognised that its imposition may have increased the risks these people face.”

The signatories added: “Poor decision-making could yet again have exposed Afghans to serious harm, with many of these people having clear UK family ties.”

They said: “It is essential that those who were resettled under ARAP and ACRS are able to live in safety and are given a fair opportunity to reunite with their families.”

Some routes are open to resettled Afghans to reunite in the UK with relatives, but the signatories said these involve “extremely costly application fees and require copious, specific documentation.”

Wendy Chamberlain MP, the Liberal Democrat chair of the all-parliamentary group for Afghan women, told The Independent: “There is already anecdotal evidence of reprisals on family members by the Taliban — the Home Office has no time to waste if the government wants to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality.

“The Home Office desperately needs to take a pragmatic and compassionate approach to allowing Afghans resettled in the UK to be reunited safely with their families.

“It is clear that these schemes have been seriously mis-handled, culminating in the recent exposure of the 2022 data leak.”

James Tullett, CEO of the charity Ramfel, said: “The government has acknowledged that the people they have resettled need protection, and yet this offer of support comes with the heavy price of separation from family.

“Allowing Afghan families to reunite won’t solve all the problems associated with the data leak, but it will make a monumental difference for the affected families.”


Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster

Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster
Updated 05 August 2025
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Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster

Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster
  • People can ‘speak freely’ since Hasina was removed from power, analysts say
  • Interim government plans to hold elections between February and April 2026

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered in the capital of Dhaka on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the student-led uprising that ousted long-serving former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Hasina was removed from power on Aug. 5, 2024, when demonstrators defied a nationwide curfew and stormed her official residence, forcing her to flee to neighboring India, where she remained in exile. 

Her ouster came following weeks of protests that began in early July 2024. What started as peaceful demonstrations over a controversial quota system for government jobs morphed into a wider anti-government movement which was met with a violent crackdown against protesters by security forces that killed over 1,000 people, mostly students. 

The end of her 15 years in uninterrupted power brought the formation of an interim government led by Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who promised to restore stability and hold new elections after necessary reforms. 

“Together, we will build a Bangladesh where tyranny will never rise again,” Yunus said in a message to the nation on Tuesday, as crowds in the capital waved flags and used colored smoke to celebrate. 

A year on, Hasina now faces trial for crimes against humanity in absentia, while the prospect for a better and reformed Bangladesh remains a challenge. 

“There is already a high hope among the citizens of this country that the interim government could do much. But we have to consider the time frame. At the same time, we have to consider the reality on the ground,” Dr. ASM Amanullah, political analyst and Vice-Chancellor of the National University, told Arab News. 

Though progress on institutional reforms promised by the interim government has been slow and fragmented, the country has been recording signs of economic recovery after the burden left by the previous Awami League party-led government, which accumulated over $44 billion in foreign debt and oversaw widespread corruption plaguing the banking, infrastructure, energy and power sectors. 

“People’s hopes are valid … (But) the way the government handled the issue with 180 million people in the country is remarkable,” Amanullah said. 

The interim government “should move to hold a free and fair election early next year, as early as possible,” he added. 

Despite calls for early polls, the Yunus administration has delayed elections, which may now take place between February and April 2026. 

While uncertainty about the future of democracy still looms large in Bangladesh, the country has witnessed in this past year a greater freedom of expression among the public, which was largely absent under Hasina’s rule of extensive dissent suppression, electoral manipulation and restricted press freedom. 

“The people of Bangladesh can speak freely, can run freely, they can move freely without fear. There is no fear of extrajudicial killing. There is no fear of abduction,” Amanullah said. 

In a report published on July 30, New York-based Human Rights Watch said “some of the fear and repression” and “abuses such as widespread enforced disappearances” that marked Hasina’s rule “appear to have ended.” 

For Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Bengali-language daily Amar Desh, this was Bangladesh’s “biggest” achievement. 

“We can speak freely, The people can vent their anger. They can criticize the government without any fear of government persecution. And the media is free; media also can criticize the government,” he told Arab News. 

But priority must be placed on holding elections that “will be accepted by the people of Bangladesh” and the international community. 

“We should return to the democratic system … without any further delay,” Rahman said. “It’s better to let a political government take over and we’ll see where the country goes from there.”

Despite the myriad of unresolved issues, Bangladeshis believe that unity will be central to the future of their country. 

“Most important for the people of the country is to unite against fascism,” Rahman said. “They should uphold the spirit of the July Revolution and they should unite in a way that never again another fascist regime should come to power in any form.” 

Amanullah from Bangladesh’s National University echoed the sentiment. 

“At this moment, the most important thing for Bangladesh is to be united,” he said. “This should be the most priority concern for the country. If they remain united, Bangladesh will see a light at the end of the tunnel.”