This study aims to examine the impact of political elites’ positions on social protests (a case study of the 2022 Iranian protests). The research adopts a qualitative approach based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and directed qualitative content analysis. The data consist of statements, declarations, and public remarks by political elites, which were purposefully selected and analyzed through a three-stage coding process (open, axial, and selective coding). The findings indicate that political elites’ positions can be categorized into four main patterns: supportive positions toward social demands, securitization of protests, reform-oriented positions, and silence or ambiguous stances. The results further show that these positions, through security, social, legal, and moral frames, have contributed to the production of multiple and sometimes conflicting narratives of the protests. The analysis demonstrates that divergence among political elites has led to increased perceptual fragmentation within society, whereas relative convergence has contributed to more coherent interpretations of social reality. In addition, political silence is identified as a meaningful discursive act that intensifies interpretive ambiguity and expands polysemy in the public sphere. Overall, the findings suggest that political elites, through framing processes and meaning production, play a significant role in shaping public perceptions of social protests. Rather than being merely objective events, social protests are constructed within the discursive competition among political elites