Up to 3,000 people marched this Sunday in Rabat. “The people want lower prices… The people want to bring down despotism and corruption,” chanted the demonstrators.
Between 1,200 and 3,000 Moroccans demonstrated in Rabat on Sunday once morest “high cost of living and political repression”, at the call of left-wing organizations, once morest a backdrop of accelerating inflation and rising social discontent.
This national march, one of the largest in recent months, brought together between 1,200 and 1,500 people in the center of the capital, according to an estimate by the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN). Journalists present estimated the crowd at around 3,000 protesters.
The demonstration was organized by the Moroccan Social Front (FSM), which brings together political parties and left-wing trade unions.
“We came to protest once morest a government that embodies the marriage of money and power and that supports monopoly capitalism,” said WSF national coordinator Younès Ferachine.
Low purchasing power
Morocco has returned “to the level of poverty and vulnerability of 2014”, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and inflation, according to a recent note from the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
Soaring prices (+7.1% in October year-on-year), increases in the cost of fuel, foodstuffs and services, combined with an exceptional drought, are dragging down growth (+0.8% only forecast for 2022 ).
The purchasing power of the poorest but also of the middle class is particularly affected in a country that already suffers from social and territorial disparities.
Coming from all over the kingdom, the demonstrators also denounced “all forms of repression” political, anti-union and once morest freedom of expression while several bloggers and journalists, critics of power, are imprisoned.