Algeria’s never ending ‘blame Morocco game’
Algerian military junta and its civilian façade have hit an unsane level by their constant deployment of conspiracy theories blaming Morocco for all the woes in the country from climate change to self-inflicted economic and political problems.
The most recent episode in Algeria’s propaganda machinery was to blame Morocco for currency counterfeiting in the country where monetary authorities have for years been printing money themselves leading to double digit inflation.
Algeria has in the past few years blamed Morocco for wild-fires in the Kabylie region while rejecting help from Morocco to deploy water bombers.
It has also blamed Morocco for the low quality of football pitches, for non-qualification to the World Cup.
When international financial institutions like the World Bank issue scathing reports urging the country to reform, Algeria opts for blaming Moroccan lobbies at the Bank for stoking reports that describe the reality of the Algerian economy.
Critics however view the blame game tactics as a way to divert attention from the self-inflicted problems facing the Algerian economy and its social peace.
Playing on the chord of Morocco, Israel, and France is in line with the military regime’s tactics to say the army is important because we have an imagined enemy at the gate.
The regime has also domesticated most of the media while sending independent journalists to jail, the latest of which was Kadi Ihssane who is behind bars on bogus charges.
As the living conditions of ordinary Algerians worsen, the crackdown of the coercive Algerian apparatus steps up amid a media blackout typical of a tyrannical state like North Korea.
Scapegoating Morocco and domestic opposition will not however help Algeria’s military junta provide bread and water to an increasingly restive population.
The bracket of expensive oil and gas opened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is now closed and Algeria has to brace for hard times as the barrel drops to pre-pandemic levels.
That means Algeria’s oil and gas dependent economy will eat into its foreign exchange reserves estimated now at 66 billion dollars with prospects to be fully depleted by 2028 according to the IMF.
This will undermine Algeria’s social peace and heavy subsidies policy. Meanwhile, Algeria shuns painful reforms to diversify its economy and prefers to put the blame on Morocco until it finds itself in the abyss of economic collapse.
