Morocco’s fuel-price debate has become bigger than petrol stations. It is now a test of power, privilege and who pays when an import-dependent economy is exposed to global energy shocks.
At the centre of the storm is Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, one of Morocco’s richest men and the head of a government under pressure over the cost of fuel.
Akhannouch’s family controls Afriquia, Morocco’s largest fuel distribution network. That has made every debate over pump prices politically explosive, especially in a country where many households and small businesses are already squeezed by transport and energy costs.
The latest pressure came after opposition lawmakers and union representatives pushed proposals to cap fuel prices and bring the country’s only oil refinery, Samir, under state ownership.
The proposals were later rejected in Morocco’s upper chamber, but the damage had already been done. The debate reopened one of the most uncomfortable questions in Moroccan politics which asks if a billionaire fuel-sector shareholder lead a government trusted to regulate fuel prices?
