Rabat residents took to the Capital’s streets today to protest the recent “unbearable” cost of living in Morocco, chanting against “high prices, the government’s failure to fulfill social obligations, and the continued degradation of pension earnings.”
Amid strong security presence and law enforcement detail, protestors along Rabat’s Allal Ibn Abdallah Street marched against the continually rising cost of basic goods and services, and what they described as “ineffective government intervention.”
Protestors criticized the “political hypocrisy” that they witnessed from the government amid history inflation in the Kingdom, saying that high prices, corruption, and “forceful blockades” are behind the march, organized on the eve of the the 12 anniversary of the February 20th protests.
Through the capital’s streets, citizens were heard chanting slogans and carrying banners calling for “real government action,” expressing dissatisfaction for the current Aziz Akhannouch government, but displaying overall distrust in both “the previous and subsequent government to come.”
The protest were planned nationwide. However, the Ministry of the Interior decided to ban the marches that the Confederation of Labor called for.
Local authorities justified the bans by preserving public security, while the confederation said that “authorities’ decision to prevent the confederation from protesting violates the constitution and the law.”
The Executive Office had expressed, in a statement, its “rejection of all forms of prevention and restrictions on the right to peaceful protest and demonstration, which is guaranteed by the constitution and international covenants.”
They instead called on all local and regional federations and national unions to continue mobilizing to organize and make the regional protest marches a success with awareness and responsibility.
The statement held the government fully responsible for what might result from the dire social situation, such as the high level of social tension, in the face of ignoring the effects of this suffocating social crisis.
Othmane Baka, the regional secretary of the Confederation of Democratic Labor and a member of its executive bureau, told Hespress AR: “This march, which we have been forced to hold, is practically prohibited. The public authority came with a decision to prevent the protest, and we refused to receive it, because they also refused to receive (the request) from us.”
The unionist stressed that these protests “criticize government policy, and are not simply about tomatoes and potatoes,” two necessary vegetables for Moroccans that have simply become unattainable at current prices.
“This government policy risked national food security, exported, and made big merchants seek hard currency. We also protest because of the government’s delay in implementing the April 30 agreement, despite the existence of important issues that do not cost a single dirham,” said the unionist.
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