On July 30th 1999, Mohammed VI was officially proclaimed king of Morocco, succeeding his father, Hassan II, who had died one week earlier after ruling over the North African country in a hard-fisted reign that had lasted 38 years.
Then aged 36, Mohammed, nicknamed “M6”, had become the 23rd monarch of the Alawite dynasty and the third Alawite to rule as king of Morocco. His declared ambition was to champion the country’s poor, to be closer to his people.
But 20 years on, that ambition has failed miserably. In a report published in April, Oxfam’s Morocco branch, Oxfam Maroc, denounced the social inequalities in the country, which it said were the deepest of any among North African states. “Since independence, Morocco has adopted growth models that are deepening inequalities and putting a large part of the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability,” commented Oxfam Maroc campaign manager Abdeljalil Laroussi.
The problems affect all essential sectors, notably education, healthcare and employment, and even the king has recognised the underlying economic and political failures that have led to the current situation. In a speech before the Moroccan parliament in October 2017, he said “the model of national development […] proves itself today to be incapable of satisfying the pressing demands and growing needs of citizens”, or provide “social justice”.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
At the time of his speech, Mohammed VI was confronted with the Hirak protest movement in the largely impoverished Rif region of northern Morocco, an uprising fuelled by anger at a tragic incident one year earlier when, in October 2016, Mouhcine Fikri, a 31-year-old fishmonger in the town of Al-Hoceïma, attempted to retrieve part of his stock that had been seized by police for having allegedly been fished illegally. The confiscated swordfish were dumped by police in a rubbish collection truck, and when Fikri climbed into the back of the vehicle he was killed by its mechanical crusher.
Fikri’s death sparked months of unrest in the region, when thousands of protestors took to the streets to denounce the corruption and abuse of power of the ruling regime, unemployment, and the lack of proper access to educational and medical facilities. At the start, the protests were tolerated by the authorities, but were soon met with a brutal clampdown that saw more than 400 people imprisoned. Some of those were eventually pardoned by the king, but most remain in jail today. In June 2018, the movement’s principal leader, Nasser Zefzaki, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with the same term for activists Ouassim El Boustati and Samir Ghid, while others were given jail sentences of up to 15 years.
They have paid a heavy price for denouncing what the king himself has agreed is a profoundly unjust system, and recognised as such by the country’s highest institutions. “Part of the wealth created should be directed towards satisfying these demands,” said Abdellah Lefnatsa, an activist with the Moroccan Association of Human Rights. “Whereas the only response is repression.”
In an August 2018 interview with news agency Reuters, Ahmed Lahlimi, head of the High Planning Commission, conceded that one in three Moroccan university graduates cannot find a job due to slow economic growth, under-investment and an education system that was unable to develop employable skills. “With such slow growth, Morocco is not doing enough to significantly curb unemployment and bridge social disparities,” said Lahlimi. “The impact of growth on job creation has continued to diminish since 2000.” Addressing Morocco’s parliament in January this year, education minister Saïd Amzazi observed: “More than 600 engineers annually leave the country in the context of the scourge that we today call the brain-drain.”
Meanwhile, Moroccan Central Bank chief Abdellatif Jouahri, presenting the king with his annual report last year, insisted on the need to revise economic development policies to focus on problems of education and social exclusion. In its own annual report presented last year, Morocco’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council, a body which advises the government and parliament, noted that, “The social movements seen in our country during the recent period show that poverty, youth unemployment and inequalities are less and less accepted”, adding: “In a context where political participation remains modest, and where confidence in the supervising and inter-mediation institutions is weakened, the digital world is used more and more as a free space of expression and debate about issues which interest society, notably the question of inequalities.”
Morocco continues to belong to a category of nations which are struggling to develop, as illustrated by the 2018 human development index rankings published by the United Nations Development Programme, which placed Morocco in 123rd position, well behind its neighbour Algeria, in 85th place.
In a speech in July 2014 marking his 15 years on the Moroccan throne, Mohammed VI surprised observers with a speech in which, after trumpeting “the major infrastructures and the significant progression of economic growth”, he asked, “where are those riches?” […] have all Moroccans benefitted, or only some categories?”. The king admitted: “If Morocco has seen tangible progress, reality confirms that this wealth has not been to the benefit of all citizens.”
On the other side of the Mediterranean, however, French sovereignist and far-right circles, who are otherwise rarely shy to attack the Arab world, are keen to congratulate what has been called a “national monarchism” operated by Mohammed. One of the king’s fervent supporters is Aymeric Chauprade, a former far-right member of the European Parliament and an advisor to Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right Rassemblement National party (the former Front National). In his recently published book Géopolitique d’un roi; essai sur un Maroc moderne et multipolaire (The geopolitics of a king; an essay on a modern and multipolar Morocco), Chauprade heaps praise on an “atypical king” who has advanced the cause of democracy and freedom.
The plaudits for the Moroccan regime are also shared by some among high-profile Franco-Moroccan intellectual circles. In an article published in October 2018 by the French online magazine on Arab affairs, Orient XXI, it notably accused prominent authors Leïla Slimani and Tahar Ben Jelloun as being among what it called, “these intellectuals who criticise all the authoritarian powers…except Moroccan”.
For Khadija Ryadi, a Moroccan human rights and feminist militant, a prominent leftwing opposition figure who in 2013 was awarded The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, “the kingdom is a social powder keg”. In remote towns and villages all across the country, other Hirak protest movements have erupted, or re-erupted, as was the case in 2017-2018 in Jerada, a largely impoverished town of around 43,000 inhabitants situated in north-east Morocco, close to the Algerian border. It was the scene of mass protests by the local population after the deaths by drowning of two brothers working in a disaffected local coal mine. The incident unleashed frustrations and anger over the poor living conditions of the population, whose marches in demand of basic needs – bread, water and electricity supplies, and employment – were brutally repressed.
Just one year ago, on the 19th anniversary of his accession to the throne, Mohammed VI had yet again highlighted the necessity for social reform, promising to adjust the country’s development programme accordingly, targeting employment, healthcare and education but also public administration – while a plan to provide greater regional powers (destined in part to help end the longstanding conflict in the Western Sahara) remains stalled.
Poll found 49 percent of adults want 'rapid' political change
In its latest figures on household confidence, a second-quarter survey this year by Morocco’s High Planning Commission shows that 83% of households expect unemployment to rise over the coming 12 months, while 46.2% said their living standards had declined over the previous 12 months. Just 16.7% of households expected to be able to put aside financial savings over the next 12 months. While these illustrate a sharply deteriorating social climate, the regime’s technocrats are keenly introducing austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund. The effect is a heightening of the crisis, as illustrated in April this year when more than 300 doctors from hospitals in the north of the country announced their collective resignation over pay and working conditions and what they called “the catastrophic situation” caused by a lack of sufficient staff numbers. The largely symbolic move followed the collective resignation for the same reasons of 200 public sector doctors in 2018.
Human rights associations, both national and international, highlight an alarming number of abuses, even if relatively less dire than those under the reign of Hassan II. Earlier this month, in its report on rights violations in 2018 and the first half of 2019, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH), one of the most prominent NGOs in the sector, denounced what it called an “escalation in violations of human rights and public and individual freedom” in Morocco, accusing the government of ignoring international engagements and recommendations. It recorded seven deaths and “27 cases of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” of people held in police custody or for longer periods of detention.
Amina Bouayach, recently appointed by the king to head the Moroccan National Human Rights Council, the CNDH, a public body which, among its briefs, is supposed to act as an institution of control over the actions of security organisations, told Spanish press agency EFE emphatically that “there are no political prisoners” in Morocco’s jails and that torture is no longer practiced in prisons or by police. Her words prompted outrage among rights activists, at a period when numerous militants, journalists and bloggers are behind bars for having spoken out against injustices, corruption and the absence of accountability. AMDH president Aziz Ghali, said her comments “confirm that the CNDH is not independent”, adding that, “It is the same version as that of the State which previously denied the existence of Tazmamart [editor’s note: a notorious prison for political prisoners, closed in 1991] and other jails from the Hassan II era”.
In an interview published last week by French-language Moroccan weekly Tel Quel, Maâti Mounjib, a professor of African studies and political history at the University of Rabat and an outspoken rights campaigner, also slammed Bouayach’s comments, saying they were “a total denial of human rights violations”, and represented “a new stage in the negation of the very role of such institutions, which are supposed to advise the powers that be on contentious cases regarding violations of the law and human rights. It is the same argument as that of a representative of the state”.
Similarly, Morocco’s “inter-ministerial delegate for human rights”, Ahmed Chaouki Benyoub, earlier this month presented his report on the protests in the Rif, entitled “The events at Al-Hoceïma and the protection of human rights”, and which whitewashed the government. That was in contrast to a report on the unrest published in July 2017 by the CNDH, when it was presided by Bouayach's predecessor Driss el-Yazami, and which concluded, like many national and international ONGs, that torture and rights violations had been committed by the security forces.
While outspoken opposition to the regime is limited in the street, it has moved online. But even a disobedient message posted on Facebook can land its author in prison. The authorities survey the internet and social media, partly with the help of French and other European security technology initially introduced to monitor terrorism activity but which is also used to spy on opposition activists with no links to jihadism. One example of this was the case of Elmortada Iamrachen, an activist supporter of the Rif protests sentenced to five years in prison on the evidence of his Facebook posts. Another is Ahmed Snoussi, aka Bziz, one of Morocco’s most popular comedians (who jokingly dubbed Mohammed II “His Majet-ski” in reference to the monarch’s favourite leisure activity) and who was summoned to appear for questioning by police in Casablanca in 2018 for having posted on Facebook his outrage at the arbitrary arrests of artists in the Rif region during the protests.
In a separate example of repressive zeal, 14 supporters of football club Tétouan, a town in the north of the country, were sent for trial for having brandished the Spanish flag and shouting chants that included “Viva España” during a match in September 2018. Their symbolic protest was over the fatal shooting earlier that month by crewmembers of a Moroccan navy vessel of a young woman student from the town. The victim, Hayat Belkacem, was attempting a clandestine crossing to Spain when her dinghy came under fire. At the end of their trial in October 2018, the 14 football supporters, aged between 18 and 22, were handed separate jail sentences of between 10 and 12 months. The unhappiness of a marginalised young generation is notably voiced on football terraces, such as in the lyrics of a song popular with the “ultra” supporters of the club Raja Casablanca.
The failure of the regime’s governance is above all a patent failure of the system of an ‘executive monarchy’ which Mohammed VI has refused to step down from, intent on keeping tight control over the country’s affairs and as such perpetuating, albeit with less absolutism, the oriental authoritarianism handed down by his father. His attempts to contain an inexorable rise of Islamist groups, which build their support on the dire conditions of poverty in the country, he has promoted artificial political movements to the extent of hampering the functioning of government. Since the last legislative elections, held in 2016, the executive is made up of a lopsided coalition of diverging ideologies which have been incapable of transforming the king’s ambitions for economic and social development into practice.
As a last resort, in face of the multi-faceted contestation gaining the country, the authorities have adopted a strategy of attempting to discredit protest movements by accusing them of being controlled by hardline Islamists, such as during demonstrations in March in the capital Rabat by thousands of teachers demanding permanent employment contracts.
Often described as a model of stability in the region, Morocco is stuck in a period of political inertia at a time when the Maghreb countries are witnessing social change. That is the case of Tunisia, but above all this year in Algeria, where the recurrent mass demonstrations calling for regime change have been observed with trepidation by the authorities in Rabat, fearful of their propagation across the common border – a frontier which has been closed for 25 years.
A wide-ranging survey for BBC News Arabic by the Arab Barometer research network, published in June, found that while half of over 60-year-olds polled in Morocco held a positive view of the government, the figure for those aged 18-29 was just 18%. It also found that 70% of Moroccan adults aged under 30 who were questioned would like to emigrate, while 49% of all adults questioned wanted to see a “rapid political change” in the country, the most in any of the ten Arab countries where the survey asked the question.
On the diplomatic front, Morocco has lost the influence it had under Hassan II, when it was an indispensable regional arbiter. While its relations with its traditional allies – the US, European countries and the Gulf states – have seen a chequered evolution, today it is turned towards gaining a key role on the African continent, for both economic and diplomatic reasons, although whether it has that 'soft power' clout is uncertain.
The royal palace called for the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Mohammed VI’s reign to be held without ostentation, such is the gloomy atmosphere that has fallen on the country. That is despite the glowing resumé presented by the authorities of his achievements, seen through the prism of grand projects led by the king, such as the Tanger Med shipping port, the largest by capacity in the Mediterranean, the high speed train link between the country's two principal economic poles of Casablanca and Tanger, and the emergence of a carmaking industry notably with investments in plants by French marques Renault and PSA.
Over the past two years, the king has periodically stepped out of the limelight at home, travelling abroad and sometimes joining what would appear to be improbable social company. He could be followed on Instagram and other social media, where he can be seen pictured with boxer Abu Bakr Azaitar, dubbed “the Gladiator”, and with the French comedian of Moroccan origin Jamel Debbouze, and the French rapper Gandhi Djuna aka Maître Gims (see below).
Enlargement : Illustration 2
The Moroccan king’s personal life is the subject of numerous speculations; these include reports in European gossip magazines of his divorce from his wife of 17 years, Lalla Salma, which has never been officially announced, or accounts of his lifestyle and luxury possessions, the most recent of these being his acquisition of a 70-metre yacht reportedly for an asking price of 88 million dollars and moored off M’diq on Morocco’s northern coast, from where thousands of desperate young Moroccans set off on clandestine crossings to Europe.
“In the monarchy, the private body of the king was always hidden, and it was the public body which was staged,” commented Moroccan historian, author and political commentator Mohammed Ennaji in an interview published last October in French weekly L’Obs. “With Mohammed VI, we see on the contrary an overflowing of the private body, as if he can no longer stand being subjected to the public body, an over-exposure, almost exhibitionism. It is certainly quite in keeping with our times of ultra-transparency and voyeurism, but in the removal of the mystique of the role we have reached a summit never before seen.”
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Ali Amar is a co-founder of Le Desk, an independent Moroccan online magazine of news and feature reports with which Mediapart is an editorial partner. Le Desk, which is accessed by subscription, can be found here.
- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse