Unemployment is endemic in Morocco and, as is the case in all countries ruled by authoritarian regimes, the authorities have only repression and the “security” solution to oppose those who demand better living conditions or those who demand better living conditions, who manage otherwise to have a livelihood.
A video shared on social media clearly shows this. It was shot in the Moroccan city of Nador (north) and quickly went viral. We see a young peanut seller overturning his stall in front of three police officers who have come to seize him.
Entering a hysterical state, he shouts in the face of law enforcement officers and in front of many onlookers that he only had this activity to support his family and to meet the expenses of the Eid holidays which are approaching.
Arab Spring
He then tramples his goods on the ground and scatters them on all sides. Impassive, the police went to the end. They seized the stall and took its owner away. The same video shows another seizure of a street clothes vendor.
Internet users, outraged by the fate of the peanut seller, recall that the events of the Arab Spring which changed the face of the region over the past ten years started from a similar incident in Tunisia.
In January 2011, the suicide by immolation of Mohamed El Bouazizi following the seizure by the police of his fruit and vegetable stall, was the first spark of the Tunisian revolution which put an end to the autocratic regime of Zine El Abidine Benali. The movement then spread oil to several Arab countries, including Egypt, Syria and Libya.
