Earlier this week on Wednesday, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud declared his 31-year old son, Mohammed bin Salman, the new crown prince. By doing this, King Salman has skipped over his previous heir and nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, thus solidifying his own families control over the country.
While the move has received mixed reactions from the international community, one institution was pretty quick to congratulate the new crown prince as well as pledge their loyalty: McDonald’s.
Fast-food loyalty
To clarify, it was McDonald’s branch in Saudi Arabia that pledged their allegiance to Salman.
Considering the fact that Mishaal Bin Khalid al-Saud owns the Saudi branch, another Saudi prince and a close relative of Prince Salman, this isn’t all too surprising.
The Saudi branch of the fast-food conglomerate paid for an entire full-page advertisement in one of the country’s most popular newspapers to wish the new crown prince good fortune. However, when the same message was posted on their Twitter page, social media users sarcastically asked why other fast-food chains such as Burger King, Domino’s, and KFC haven’t pledged their loyalty yet.
Amazingly enough, all of the franchises above, except for KFC, subsequently responded with their own tweets swearing their allegiance to Prince Salman.
Considering how politics and fast-food chains don’t exactly coincide with one another, this is rather odd.
The new Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman has been seen as the face of reformation in Saudi Arabia. He has already talked about trying to diversify the country’s economic portfolio in order to steer away from the Kingdom’s dependence on oil.
But perhaps one of his more remarkable ideas is bringing women into the workforce which is truly groundbreaking considering Saudi Arabia’s long history of sexism.
Prince Salman has already been given control of the nation’s oil, economy, and defense policies by his father which puts him in a position of unprecedented power for a Saudi prince.
Not to mention the fact that his young age bodes well for a country with a median age of 28. With the Kingdom gradually transitioning control to the younger generation, this move seems to make perfect sense.
However, despite his progressive mindset, Prince Salman is far from perfect. He’s currently overseeing the war with Yemen which most experts agree is a humanitarian disaster thanks in large part to the aggressive actions taken by the Kingdom. There’s also no indication that he intends to ease tensions with Saudi Arabia’s long-time rival Iran in which he believes negotiations with them are impossible. In fact, he’s already implied his intentions to undermine them further and even possibly go to war with them.
There’s no doubt that once Prince Salman officially becomes king, it’ll mark the beginning of a very eventful reign in Saudi Arabia.
