Morocco majority rejects fuel price cap and Samir takeover bills

The opposition did not have long to savor its victory in the House of Councillors. Last week, it managed to push through, in committee, two draft laws: one to cap fuel prices and the other to transfer Samir’s assets to the Moroccan state.

However, during the plenary session held Tuesday night, the majority struck back. Supported by the employers’ group as well as the General Union of Workers in Morocco (UGTM), the trade-union arm of the Istiqlal Party, it rejected both texts by 29 votes to 10, with a single abstention from the USFP group.

The two draft laws had been approved by members of the Finance Committee in the House of Councillors, in the absence of representatives from all the governing majority groups, except for the committee’s chair, Moulay Messaoud Agnaou, a member of the PAM.

Capping fuel prices is a proposal that has been postponed time and again; the El Othmani government (April 2017 to October 2021) failed to impose it.