Pak Sahafat – The increase in the price of gasoline for 16 times during the last 2 years has faced the Kingdom of Jordan with a new socio-economic challenge. In addition to popular protests, the truck drivers’ strike, especially in the southern provinces such as “Ma’an”, “Kirak” and “Al-Zarqa” has attracted everyone’s attention.
According to the report of the international group of Pak Sahafat news agency, the decision of the Jordanian Prime Minister Bashar al-Khasauneh government to increase the price of gasoline for the 16th time in the last 2 years sparked unrest in Jordan, which has resulted in 4 deaths and many Arab media have used the word crisis for it.
The story started when 2 weeks ago, in a controversial meeting, the Prime Minister confirmed the rumors about the removal of fuel subsidies and announced that due to the inability of the government to provide fuel subsidies of 680 million dollars, it has removed the relevant clause from the 2023 budget.
This was while a few days ago, the Court of Accounts in Jordan had announced that in line with the austerity policies, it has decided to increase the retirement age in this country, which inflamed the atmosphere of social networks and public affairs.
In response to this decision, heavy vehicle drivers went on strike in the city of “Ma’an” in southern Jordan, while the truckers’ union (based in Amman) opposed this strike, but despite this opposition, heavy vehicle drivers in other cities, including “Al-Zarqa” and “Kirak” also joined the strike.
Also, strikes started in other cities (except the capital) and even taxi drivers stopped working in some areas. The problem became so serious that the work at Aqaba port (Jordan’s only port and the country’s vital artery) was stopped for 2 days.
In order to curb the crisis, the government agreed to the demand of heavy vehicle drivers for a 40% increase in the fare, which was proposed by the union the previous year, but the strike did not stop.
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Unrest in Jordan; From the beginning of strikes to the latest state of protests
Opponents of the government pointed out that the government’s excuse is that the increase in price is the result of the war in Ukraine, and emphasized that the process of increasing the price of gasoline (in 16 steps over 2 years) had started before the war. Also, referring to the daily receipt of 10,000 barrels of Iraqi oil at a discount of $6 per barrel, they believed that the government intends to compensate for the budget deficit by imposing a tax on gasoline.
Currently, the Jordanian government has a balance deficit of nearly 5 billion dollars and a budget deficit of 2 billion dollars, and critics of the government emphasize that instead of implementing real austerity policies, such as reducing the royal family’s waste, reducing managers’ salaries (average over 10 thousand dollars) and reckless hiring, the government has targeted the weakest sections of society with austerity policies.
Since the government was worried about imposing new taxes or increasing taxes, it decided to stop the fuel subsidy, and there were even rumors that the government might stop the bread subsidy as well.
These economic policies of the government are in the situation that in Ramadan 2018, following the decision of the government of Abdullah Nasour, the former prime minister, to impose value added tax, it provoked the anger of the people in Amman, which led to widespread protests in July of that year, which finally resulted in the removal of Al-Nasour. Of course, those protests led to the formation of a movement called “Meanash” in Jordan, and it continued to exist with few protests for several months.
But this time, unlike the protests 4 years ago in Amman, which was completely peaceful and without any casualties, thousands of people protested on the street leading to the prime minister’s office, from the very beginning, “Abd al-Razzaq Al-Dalabih”, the deputy commander of “Public Security” and two days later, 3 forces Security guards lost their lives. This is mostly due to the tribal and fanatical context of Maan city, which has long been the center of Salafist groups.
Although the protests in Jordan have decreased to some extent in recent days with the meeting of the Dead Sea (Baghdad 2), but the economic crisis in Jordan and dissatisfaction with the livelihood situation is too deep to be calmed by housing for a long time.
The reason for this claim is that the unemployment rate in Jordan is over 24% and the trade balance deficit of 4 billion dollars and the budget deficit of 2 billion dollars in the last 2 years have caused serious damage to the economy of this country. The Corona crisis, the relative bankruptcy of the tourism industry as the backbone of the Jordanian economy has deepened the problems, and the governments are only resorting to borrowing or new taxes to solve these problems.
It seems that until the Jordanian government takes a serious plan for real reforms to balance the budget and avoid foreign borrowing, there will be no hope for improvement. It is expected that this time, like in 2018, with the removal of “Bashar al-Khasawneh”, the current prime minister, and possibly the help of Arab and Western allies, the situation will calm down to some extent, but there is no guarantee that this solution will always be successful.