On 11 June, parliamentary debates were suspended in the Chamber
of Deputies when an MP of the ruling PJD, Abdul Aziz Avtate,
accused former finance minister Salaheddine Mezouar of
accepting bribes 'under the table' in a tirade about the need for reform. MPs of
Mezouar's party, the Rassemblement national des indépendants (RNI), one of the
largest opposition parties, expressed their anger before the speaker ended the
session.
Avtate's accusation may be seen partly as a reaction to RNI
deputies' acerbic criticism of the PJD's unpopular measures. Interviewed in the
francophone global weekly Jeune Afrique, Mezouar said that Islamist PJD policies
are just sensationalist. Elected as president of the RNI in April, Mezouar's
ambition is to transform the RNI, a centrist party of technocrats and notables,
into the leading opposition party.
In the November 2011 elections, the RNI won 52 seats (out of
395), as opposed to 39 in the outgoing parliament. Mezouar believes that the PJD
has no real answer to current economic problems; the recent budget adopted by
the Islamist-led government is simply the budget for 2012 drawn up under Mezouar
last year. So far, from the RNI point of view, the Islamists have put forward
fragments of legislation around religious and ideological issues to hide their
incapacity to satisfy society's expectations in terms of jobs and improvements
in daily life. Rather than being capable of implementing true reform, the
current government prefers spectacle.
© 2012 Menas Associates
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