Morocco: No withdrawal by Istiqlal from the Benkirane government

Ironically, the most formidable opponenof t Abdelilah Benkirane is none other than Hamid Chabat, his ally in the majority coalition. On saturday in his electoral stronghold, the strong man of the Istliqlal party took advantage of a meeting of the League of istiqlialian economists, headed by Adil Douiri to launch direct attacks targeting especially the  PJD ministers according to the website of Biladi.

Reform of the compensation fund, new scene of conflict

The origin of this new tension between the "allies", the draft reform of the compensation fund is headed by Najib Boulif of the PJD, Minister for General affairs of government and governance,He has prepared a draft, to be exact, and hasbeen criticised by the opposition and by the Istiqlal. At the same meeting in Fez, Adil Douiri, the former minister of tourism in the Jettou governement, also criticised the first information deliberately revealed by Mr Boulif on measures to even out  its fiscal crisis . On this subject, it is clear that the difference in differences between the PJD and the Istliqlal party is abysmal.

Chabat offers before, taking any initiative to conduct a census of the poor in Morocco to ensure their ability to cope with price increases of subsidised items directly by the Fund, once the project is on track.  On Wednesday in Rabat, the minister of state without portfolio, Abdellah Baha, true to form, tried to be reassuring, considering that the gradual removal of subsidies would result only in an increase of 43% of the costs of these products for households.

However, estimates suggest a worst case scenario for the poor as well as middle class more than three times for the price of a large and  small cylinder of butane gas, almost double the kg of sugar, three dirhams per liter for diesel and a driham for petrol. As for electricity bills they have already tripled.

No withdrawal of the Istiqlal partyfrom the Benkirane government.

Despite the continuation of his criticism, the boss of Istliqlal said  on Saturday at Fez, his party has no intention to plan to withdraw from government headed by the Secretary General of the PJD, so that Morocco might  descend into chaos like Egypt and Tunisia.

This is the first time that made such an announcement  has been made by Chabat, who sually maintains a degree of suspense around this issue before referring to the next session of the National Council of the Istliqlal Party, scheduled for April. It turns out that the developments in the region have undermined Chabat's position.