MOROCCO · POLITICS
Key Facts
—The vote: Morocco’s House of Councillors rejected two opposition bills on Tuesday, June 16 — one to cap retail fuel prices, one to return the idle Samir refinery to state hands. Twenty-nine councillors voted against, ten in favour, with one abstention.
—The conflict: Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a billionaire, built his fortune on Afriquia, the country’s largest fuel-distribution network — the very market the bills sought to regulate.
—The case for: Backers say a price ceiling would shield households from oil-price swings and trim the margins of dominant distributors.
