The campaign of growing rejection of the high prices in the social media in Morocco has seen widening and expansion, especially as it has turned straight into a dilemma in which wealth overlaps with power, and personal interests with public interests, and it is related to the gas market in which the Prime Minister owns the lion’s share, which made the silent protest on the network Spider-Man is taking a political turn by demanding that the Prime Minister be held accountable and removed, as he is a party to the illegal benefit from the rise in fuel prices.
The controversy over the rise in the price of fuel in Morocco
The energy crisis is almost a global problem that concerns all countries, and Morocco is no exception to this crisis. In fact, most wars fought are surrounded by an underlying conflict over energy.
This was clearly demonstrated in the current crisis in Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine, where Europe is reluctant to address the consequences of the energy crisis threatening Russia, which may mean a cold winter in the event of the complexity of the crisis and the lack of a breakthrough or the absence of alternatives.
But despite this, these countries whose economy (such as Germany) exceeds the economies of the Arab countries combined;
The contract did not abandon it, due to the presence of oversight institutions and adherence to the restrictions of the law and the public interest, and this reflects an aspect of trust despite the apparent dominance of the market and companies.
This trust remains questionable in Morocco and other countries in the Arab region, which makes society look for alternatives in protest to express its demands and reject the monopolistic tendencies of the business and money “lobbies”, resulting in multiple imbalances, perhaps the most dangerous of which threatens social stability.
The crisis needs a complex treatment that evokes the risks of investing in the crisis and getting rich from it at the expense of the purchasing capabilities and the fragile social status of large segments whose rejection and protest against the “lobby” of hydrocarbons may develop beyond a hypothetical protest.
Given the number of factors and questions raised by social media pioneers in the past months, and a group of elites have been involved, the situation is similar to tragedies traders, as crises, wars and turmoil known by systems and societies are a motive to enrich a class behind the crisis, and this happens obscenely in countries that are absent It has governance and accountability mechanisms.
In other words, this leads to the legal and institutional vacuum, or the lack of independence of the regulatory institutions to the extent that they perform their effective function, as is the case of the House of Representatives / Parliament, for which an exploratory committee prepared for fuel prices and competition conditions in the summer of 2017 - following field visits and meetings with actors and investors in the oil sector. Fuel - a report indicating the state of corruption in the sector.
However, the recommendations of the exploratory committee in that report, despite their weakness and the inability to correctly describe the corruption that plagued the hydrocarbon sector, remained ink on paper, as they were not transformed into legal systems and measures that protect the consumer and limit the tendency of monopoly, and this is due to the lack of actual independence. of the legislative authority in the Moroccan political system, and the absence of mechanisms that make parliamentary exploratory tasks;
Which is usually formed to monitor many imbalances and abuses, has the power to influence the actual and direct in enacting binding laws that address the imbalances.
In the same context, we can recall the work carried out by the Competition Council, which is a constitutional institution of an advisory nature;
Its jurisdiction is directly involved in what we are dealing with, as the Competition Council, two years ago, monitored the rise in fuel prices and determined the profit margin earned by the fuel companies in a limited circumstance after the liberation of the fuel sector, to submit a report to the King of the country, stating that there are possible collusions between fuel distributors, with the possibility of " Existence of anti-competitive practices in the fuel distribution market,” as stated in a statement on July 21, 2020, with the imposition of a fine of 9% of the turnover of the three types of fuel distributors in Morocco, and less for other companies.
And through the council’s report, which reported the existence of collusion between fuel distributors, as well as the tensions that marred the council, which is expected to ensure fair competition in the economy and protect the consumer, what is authorized by an official institution is the obscene exploitation of the liberation of the hydrocarbon sector, in the absence of regulating laws, or with inability About roofing prices.
The deterioration of the deliberations within the parliament itself does not indicate the incorrectness of the parliament’s conclusions, which came almost identical to the results of the exploratory committee, and between the work of the parliamentary committee and what happened to the speaker of the parliament shows the sensitivity of the issue of hydrocarbons, and the strong influence of the “lobby” on hydrocarbons, which may result from a state of greed that increases social tension. and the political together in the country, and it affects societal confidence in the constitutional institutions, which are already in deep crisis.
Protest in the media and societal rejection... Levels of crisis resolution
The growing rejection of the rise in fuel prices, and the consequent rise in food prices in general, evoke a deep political awareness that should be paid attention to and invested in to overcome the imbalances in the system of power and the regulatory vacuum, by activating institutions and control mechanisms over the “lobby” of money and business, where they overlap Part of it is the personal interests of the public, and this is not at all a sent word, but rather it was mentioned in the royal speech on the occasion of the Throne Day, on July 30, 2022, and this serves as a call to avoid the identification of individual interests over public interests, which was considered a reference to the ongoing crisis that It increases the blockage of the political scene and the tension at the social level.
In fact, the crisis needs a complex treatment that evokes the risks of investing in the crisis and getting rich from it at the expense of the purchasing capabilities and the fragile social situation of large segments whose rejection and protest against the “lobby” of hydrocarbons may develop beyond a hypothetical protest, as its repercussions have affected the direct living of the general public. , especially that the situation of fluctuations in crude prices at the international level and its decline is not matched by the decrease in its selling price to the public, as the net profit per liter can reach 3 dirhams above what is prescribed, which means a state of corruption and exploitation of the legal vacuum situation and the disruption or insufficiency of the regulatory institutions From playing their roles, which needs intervention to reduce the consequences of the crisis, which is rightly a manifestation of the dilemma of the overlap between wealth and power, and the search for it will not be effective unless it is systematically through multiple levels:
political level
The rentier economy and the abuses taking place in the hydrocarbon sector, which express structural corruption that benefits from the nature of the political system, lose confidence in institutions and political media, and their inability to protect interests or silence over the abuses of a “lobby” poses a threat and a danger to social peace and the entire political system, which means that The entrance lies in the consolidation of democracy, which allows the generation of elites who can be held accountable, and in fact what is absent from the outcomes of the current political scene, which further deepens the gap between the state and society.
In fact, betting on development with a vision that excludes political content carries imminent societal dangers, as part of the societal rejection questions the marriage of money to power, and tends to the necessity of separation, in order to avoid turning institutions into mere tools in the hands of a “lobby” that is not preoccupied with stability and societal peace, but rather with profit and wealth. And when tragedies are an opportunity to get rich by the monopolistic few, this threatens the state in one of the foundations of its existence and continuity.
The only company in Morocco specialized in refining and refining petroleum has stopped working, and the state has not interfered in solving the problem or in the sector as a whole;
The hydrocarbon lobby was allowed to dominate the distribution market, but the necessity requires state intervention in sectors that affect, in one way or another, societal stability.
Legal and regulatory level
This is directly related to the previous level, as the “lobby” of hydrocarbons and other forms of rentier economy and manifestations of corruption thrive in the absence of the institutions’ independence from spheres of influence, as was evident in the report of the exploratory committee, and then later with the Competition Council in its previous and current version, which expressed The Speaker of the Council is waiting for the Council's law to be updated, and this reflects a crisis that hides behind a state of impotence with which societal rejection may develop beyond a silent protest.
The nationalization of the Samir company and the state's intervention in the sector
That is because the only company in Morocco specialized in refining and refining petroleum has stopped working, and the state has not interfered in solving the problem or in the sector as a whole;
The fuel lobby was allowed to dominate the distribution market, but the necessity requires the state to intervene in the sectors that affect in one way or another societal stability. Governance and semi-corruption.
In conclusion: When corruption is individual cases, its impact remains isolated, but the reality of the situation as has been evident since the liberation of the hydrocarbon sector, and with the successive reports of the Survey Committee and the Competition Council, and then in the current context in the disproportion between the shifts in the price of crude at the international level and the selling price to the public, which This resulted in a societal rejection. We are facing a complex and institutionalized corruption that harms the state and poses an existential threat to it, taking advantage of the legal vacuum and oversight mechanisms, which require the rule of law and the activation of oversight and accountability mechanisms.
Otherwise, the state/authority may become a tool in the hands of a monopolistic few, which leads to crises that threaten peace and societal stability. Therefore, the vigilance of society should be seen as a warning of the nature of the imbalance and crisis, and then an entry point for rescue and reconciliation of the state in society, and in other words restoring wasted confidence.
Invoking this aspect, according to some readings, reflects the attention of the royal establishment in Morocco to the risks of investment in crisis contexts, but in fact this remains a matter of speeches despite its importance in the political scene in that it bears a guiding character.