On June 7, 2024, the Arab Barometer released the results of an extended opinion poll conducted in Morocco between December 11, 2023, and January 30, 2024, with more than 2400 individuals. The poll revealed that poverty and vulnerability among Moroccans had risen and that citizens were complaining about rampant corruption within the agencies and institutions of the state. The social crisis that has exhausted the country is deepening thanks to an unannounced political vacuum that portends unclear horizons.
A choking economic crisis
Most of the participants in the Arab Barometer’s poll complained about the difficult economic situation, which has had a negative impact on the poor and middle classes. Sixty-three percent of the respondents stated that their food runs out before there is money to buy more, i.e., before the end of each month. It is noteworthy that this percentage has increased as compared to 2022, when it represented only 36 percent. More than half of the Moroccans (57 percent of the respondents) consider that the availability of food represents a major or moderate problem for them because of the substantial increase in the prices of foodstuffs and fuel and in the cost of living in general. Thirty-nine percent believe that the wealth gap has widened in a record-breaking way in just one year. According to a summary of the report, this lays bare the absence of economic equality.
In the same context, a report released by the High Commission for Planning (an official research institution) this June indicated that 82.5 percent of Moroccan families said that their standard of living had deteriorated in the last 12 months, while 4.4 percent of the families declared that their standard of living had improved in the same period. The percentage of families able to save part of their income did not exceed a paltry 1.8 percent. The Moroccan government often casts doubt on the numbers emanating from the High Commission for Planning, even though it is a constitutionally accredited institution.
These figures demonstrate the repercussions of the choking economic crisis ongoing since the coronavirus pandemic. The Moroccan authorities have generally avoided addressing it or blamed factors that are global, like the Russian war on Ukraine, or environmental, like the drought wave that recently hit Morocco. They are trying to emphasize that they are not responsible for the deterioration of the existing social situation.
On the other hand, a group of economic researchers, among them university professor and economic expert Najib Akesbi, emphasizes that the crisis is not just the result of drought or the war in Ukraine, but stems mainly from the rentier nature of the Moroccan economy, in which corruption, monopoly, and opportunism on the part of influential political quarters prevail, and in which the elements of free competition are absent thanks to an authoritarian regime in which the separation of power and wealth is non-existent.
Between rampant corruption and a conflict of interests
The Arab Barometer’s opinion poll revealed that 55 percent of the Moroccans between the ages of 18 and 29 are thinking of emigrating from the country because of economic and political factors and the absence of educational opportunities in addition to rampant corruption in the institutions of the state. Fifty-three percent of them say that “they may decide to emigrate even without the official documents needed to do so.” The same poll indicated that 74 percent of Moroccans consider that corruption is widespread to a greater or lesser extent in the institutions of the state.
A study released by the Institute of Social and Media Studies in May 2023, incorporating the results of an opinion poll that included 491 young Moroccan men and women whose ages ranged between 18 and 45, showed that 91 percent of Moroccan youth believe that corruption affects their opportunities to work and obtain educational opportunities.
Fouad Abdelmoumni, an economist and former head of Transparency International in Morocco, believes that the roots of the economic and social crisis that has exhausted Moroccans in the last four years is the result of “looting, corruption, nepotism, an arms race, the Western Sahara conflict, and the exorbitant cost of the monarchy and its elite.” The Moroccan economy can no longer afford to continue with raging headwinds like the coronavirus, the Russian war against Ukraine, and drought. Abdelmoumni hones in on the issue of conflict of interests that has sapped the Moroccan economy.
In May 2018, in a report published on its electronic site, the Moroccan House of Representatives documented that the Afriquia Company, which specializes in distributing petroleum products and is owned by the current Prime Minister, the billionaire Aziz Akhannouch (Minister of Agriculture at the time), had amassed illicit and illegal profits after the government decree issued at the end of 2015 lifting subsidies for petroleum products. According to the report, the petroleum distribution companies, with Afriquia – which controls the importation and distribution of 29 percent of the diesel and 42 percent of the super gasoline – in the forefront, reaped around 17 billion dirhams (around 1.7 billion dollars) above and beyond legal profit between the end of 2015 and the first trimester of 2018. It is well known that fuel prices directly affect the cost of foodstuffs in particular and the standard of living in general.
Minister Akhannouch did not respond to the parliamentary report that accused his company and others of corruption. Nor was a judicial investigation launched into the matter. These companies continue to work with the same logic in violation of the law. It is important to note here that the Royal Palace dismissed the President of the Moroccan Competition Council (a constitutional institution whose mission is to regulate the status of competition in the markets and combat illicit commercial practices, economic concentration, and monopoly) from his position after the Council released a report condemning the illegal profits of Akhannouch’s company as well as others in July 2020. As a result, the decision of the Council fining these companies 8 percent of their annual transactions was not implemented by order of the Royal Palace.
Morocco ranks 97 in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2023, while it ranks low in the Human Development Index issued by the United Nations Development Program ranking 120. Morocco tops the list of the most expensive countries in North Africa in which to live in 2024 according to a study done by CEOWORLD magazine.
The absence of an official interlocutor and confronting the crisis with repression
The ongoing economic crisis has contributed to a relative decline in the regime’s popularity, especially among the affected working classes. This appears clearly in posts on social media as well as in some of the spontaneous protests that have continued since the beginning of 2022.
Perhaps the reason an important segment of Moroccans is increasingly angry is not just high prices, but also the absence of an official interlocutor who could explain where the deteriorating economic situation is going. The Prime Minister, Aziz Akhannouch, rarely admits that there is a crisis. On the contrary, he exploits every opportunity at which he appears to promote “the historic achievements” of his government. Similarly, the Royal Palace – the real ruler of the country – does not communicate with the people except on national holidays and does not delve into the causes and possible outcomes of the crisis.
Along with this total official silence, which portends an escalation of popular anger toward certain constitutional institutions, the security approach takes center stage. Morocco, by the testimony of most human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and official bodies like the European Parliament, has begun to rely on repressive policies based mainly on keeping society under surveillance by generalizing political arrests among the voices critical of authority in general and of economic and social marginalization in particular. Let us look at an example of this: the authorities are still holding some of the detainees of the Rif Movement who were sentenced to 20 years in prison at a trial devoid of the requirements of justice. Foremost among them is Nasser Zefzafi, the young man who helped organize the inhabitants of the Rif region (farthest north of Morocco) to demand social justice and the equitable distribution of wealth.
After Zefzafi’s arrest in May 2017, arrests continued among the activists critical of the rampant poverty, marginalization, and economic inequality, especially after the coronavirus. According to the latest statistics issued by the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, the year 2022 alone witnessed the arrest of 140 persons against “the backdrop of their participation in peaceful protests.” Perhaps this is why we find that many Moroccans who participated in the Arab Barometer poll (54 percent) express their anxiety over the restrictions the authorities have imposed on freedom of opinion and expression and the Internet.
In the face of the unprecedented rise in the cost of living, the Moroccan authorities continue to ignore the social crisis, which may develop into a political crisis that carries away the decision-makers. Instead of working to solve this crisis, they (the authorities) are busy executing gigantic, unproductive projects – like the biggest soccer stadium in the world – that drain the state’s public finances as part of the preparations for the World Cup that Morocco will host in 2020 along with Spain and Portugal.
As official political actors seek refuge in ignoring the social and economic demands of citizens while relying in parallel on repressive tactics to muzzle critical voices, they are putting the country on the edge of an abyss and foreshadowing an unknown future.
Abdellatif El Hamamouchi is a Moroccan researcher in political science and an investigative journalist. He obtained the Freedom of Expression and Media Award in North Africa for 2023 from the Article 19 organization and the Benenson-Humphrey for Freedom Prize for 2024, which is an annual prize given by Amnesty International. He is the author of the book ‘Munsif al-Marzouki: His Life and Thought.’
