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Rabat – Morocco’s Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch faced backlash during his appearance at the 2022 Timitar Festival in Agadir.
Akhannouch attended the festival to meet the organizers, but the event soon turned into a protest, with attendees calling him out for the soaring costs of fuel and basic consumer products.
Videos showing festival-goers chanting slogans and calling on the Head of Government to “leave” and “resign” from his position went viral on social media.
Many Moroccans considered Akhannouch’s attendance to the Agadir festival as rather “provocative,” especially at a time when citizens are demanding that the government offer gasoline prices at MAD 7 and diesel at MAD 8 to meet households’ purchasing power.
Akhannouch was escorted out of the venue by security, as anger over the dire economic situation escalated.
The protest comes a few days after several thousand citizens launched an online campaign to lower fuel prices and push Akhannouch to resign in light of the socio-economic situation that was worsened by global factors such as the war in Ukraine.
Citizens have also expressed their concerns over the skyrocketing prices of food.
Read Also: #AkhannouchGetOut: Hashtag Demanding Resignation of Akhannouch’s Government Goes Viral
The initiative quickly spread online, with the hashtags #7dh_Gazoil, #8dh_Essence and #Dégage_Akhannouch (get out Akhannouch) dominating the Facebook trend in the kingdom.
The hashtags have surpassed 3.4 million uses on Tiktok, and over 7,000 tweets, with dozens of politicians, economists, journalists, and civil society actors adding their voice to the rest of the citizens.
Many have expressed doubt about Akhannouch’s ability to fulfill his campaign promise to improve living conditions for Moroccans, pointing to his position as the owner of Morocco’s leading petrol station operator, Afriquia, as proof of his privilege and detachment from the general public.
While the protest continues to gain momentum online as the fuel prices stayed over MAD 16 and MAD 17 in recent weeks, the prices at the pump dropped by MAD 1 on July 15. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the slight drop, however, urging more people to join the protest until the government meets their demands.
Some Moroccans also took to Twitter to share pictures portraying Akhannouch under the effigy of Dracula.
“[Akhannouch] owns the biggest fuel company of the country. He doubles the prices even though the international prices are dropping drastically. He’s sucking the blood of his own people,” one Twitter user said.
Another tweet added, “What a shame in a 3rd world country with a minimum wage of MAD 2500 ($238) to be that expensive. Stop sucking poor people’s blood. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
