From All Africa

In a first for the Moroccan parliament, the opposition blocked the passage of the draft Finance Law in the Chamber of Councillors last Thursday (December 19th), stirring up a major controversy.

The move came as a political body blow to Abdelilah Benkirane’s government, which failed to convince MPs in the upper house of the wisdom of its decisions.

While the government holds a majority in the Chamber of Representatives, its representatives are in the minority in the Chamber of Councillors. The opposition relied on its numerical superiority to express its dissatisfaction not only with the provisions of the draft finance legislation, but also the government’s work as a whole.

The leader of the Istiqlal group in parliament, Mohamed Ansari, said that the finance bill did not reflect a clear economic and social policy. As an example, he pointed out that the number of jobs created by the bill falls short of social needs.

Ansari said that the government has failed to keep many of its promises, especially those relating to dialogue with trade unions.

The opposition also criticised the government for putting together a draft law that is accounts-based and focused squarely on macroeconomic balance.

The government has done everything possible to take the opposition’s proposals on board while rejecting some measures that could have damaged the state budget, said Driss Azami, the minister delegate responsible for the budget.

He downplayed the importance of the budget’s rejection by the councillors and underlined that the Chamber of Representatives would have the final say.

Jamal Farhane, a political analyst, said that although the Chamber of Representatives will take the final decision, the fact that the councillors voted against the draft law came as a serious political blow to the government.

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