Réda Dalil: Is Morocco’s business elite patriotic?

Is the economic elite patriotic? The question may be controversial, but it deserves to be asked. If it comes to mind, it is in response to the criticism recently leveled at the government by the president of the employers’ association and worthy representative of this elite. To sum up, if the private sector no longer invests in the productive economy, it is the fault of an Executive incapable of marking out the ground for it, of relaxing laws and so on. However, if we take a step back, we are struck by the absurdity of these accusations. First of all, because this government, headed by a paragon of the big bourgeoisie, has undoubtedly done more for big business than any government before it.

Its first Finance Law was a model of generosity towards private capital: reduction of corporate income tax and dividend tax, activation of the investment charter… It’s quite simple, the employers demand, the government acquiesces. With all this, the bosses still have the luxury of criticizing the government’s “slowness”. In 2023, the economy is expected to destroy about 300,000 jobs. While the responsibility of the executive is clearly involved in this fiasco, no one is talking about the immense responsibility of the employers.

In 2023, the economy is expected to destroy about 300,000 jobs. While the responsibility of the executive is clearly involved in this fiasco, no one is talking about the immense responsibility of the employers.

However, the bosses represented by the CGEM are just as guilty. Sitting on the battery of incentives offered by the government to invest and generate work, they did not move a finger. Their exacerbated individualism carries the following credo: “After me the deluge”. As soon as a profit bubble presented itself to our local industrialists, many were quick to sell off their productive tool, laying off thousands of workers, to invest their marbles in speculative adventures with a juicy ROI.

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Stock market, real estate, OPCIs, investment funds, everything goes there. So much so that by looking at the accounts of large companies, we see a stagnation, even a contraction of activity, with, at the same time, the unprecedented amplification of the assets of their managers (often holders of dual nationality just in case): financial assets, cash, land, properties, works of art, luxury cars, offshore accounts, etc. Some have even made capital gains in excess of a billion dollars, without ever investing them in their country.

It is not surprising that in Morocco, outside the state, public companies and Al Mada, most of the major investments are made by Chinese or European structures. Suspicious of their own country despite its current momentum, business pundits are fattening up, preferring to enjoy the delights of life instead of improving the delights of their compatriots. And, as a bonus, they allow themselves to criticize a government that regales them with accommodating laws. Never has a country been able to raise its head with such a self-centred big bourgeoisie. So, is the economic elite patriotic? It’s up to you to answer it…

Réda Dalil is the director of the Moroccan current affairs magazine, TelQuel which originally published this article in French.