On September 20, the cover of As isone of the Moroccan media most critical of the government, directly pointed the finger at the head of the Moroccan government, Aziz Akhannouch. A brief title advanced the sea of reproaches: the absent. Faced with unemployment, migratory pressure, the management of recent floods and the earthquake in the Al Houz region and the rise in prices, the Moroccan population denounces the deafening silence and the absence of effective measures of the from the government of the country. The worry and uncertainty are evident in the latest calls by networks of thousands of young people to cross the border with Ceuta in a coordinated way.
According to the spokesperson for the Rabat government, Mustafá Baitas, around 3,000 young people mobilized on September 15 via social networks to enter Ceuta despite the police deployment and the presence of Moroccan security forces. After this first attempt, a new call was launched in recent weeks to cross the border in the early hours of September 30. According to local media H24, the Moroccan and Spanish authorities are mobilized to strengthen the security system and stop entry attempts.
On the Spanish side, Alejandro Ramírez, spokesperson for the Ceuta government, expressed his hope in the active role of the Moroccan security forces. During a press conference, Ramírez clarified that: “We hope to act in the same way as on September 15, when effective coordination between the authorities of Ceuta and those of Morocco made it possible to avoid an alarming situation.” For her part, the Spanish government delegate in Ceuta, Cristina Pérez, confirmed the arrival of reinforcements at the borders to face the new attempt to enter the city.
Beyond the aspiration of young Moroccans to access new opportunities in Europe, experts highlight the increase in social unrest appearing in Morocco, which is increasing the pressure on Mohamed VI. On September 15, a group of three Moroccan boys living in Ceuta waited to pass through border control to return to the city, reflecting on the anger of their generation: “A large part of the boys who try to approach the crossing do not want to not cross. They just want to confront the police and show the government that they have had enough,” said one.
Ahmed has been working for several years as a hairdresser in the city of Ceuta, where he arrived by swimming: “We need work and in Morocco no one is doing anything to solve this problem,” he adds. According to the most recent data from the Moroccan High Commission for Planning, around 35% of young people between 18 and 24 years old are unemployed, as well as 22% in the age group of 25 to 34 years old.
Young people do not trust the state
“We are faced with young people who have lost confidence in their country and who do not believe that Morocco can ensure a decent future,” explains Thierry Desrues, researcher specializing in Morocco and principal researcher at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). ). elDiario.es at the Institute of Advanced Social Studies (ISEA) in Cordoba. However, the professor also insists on the fact that this is not a new phenomenon either, since “it has been recurring for more than three decades,” he emphasizes.
In the early 1990s, the previous monarch, Hassan II, established the National Center for Youth of the Future, an institution that sought to address youth unemployment, particularly among young graduates and those with higher education. “Even so, and as is the case today, most of the initiatives taken and taken by this type of institutions remain in reports or strategies,” he adds.
Even if in the years to come we expect a proliferation of new constructions around the port of Tangier Med, highways or the infrastructure necessary for the Football World Cup in 2030, “this type of development promotes uneven territorial development and a type of job, often with low qualifications and remuneration,” estimates Desrues.
Is it possible a new Hirak?
According to the ISEA professor, the social, economic and political conditions currently exist for protest movements to occur like those that occurred in 2017 in Al Hoceima, in the northeast of the country. “Many young Moroccans have only three alternatives: resignation, flight or speaking out,” he adds.
On the other hand, Alfonso Casani, professor of political science at the Complutense University of Madrid, emphasized in conversations with this media that “it is very difficult for such a broad movement of protest and discontent to form or emerge , above all everything, as coordinated as was the Hirak“.
Casani insists that currently protests and social movements are sporadic and have no major unifying points, to which is added “a climate of political repression that prevents mobilization and the expression of discontent.” The professor nevertheless considers that these specific protests make it possible to build alliances in the long term which can constitute a certain threat to the Moroccan regime.
Political situation and control of the Executive
Morocco has the particularity that executive power does not really belong to the government, but is shared with the king. “It is the King who, for several years, practically for five years, has been in charge of social policy,” explains the professor of political science at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The division of power “weakens the capacity for action and reaction and places the government in a compromise situation in which it should function as a buffer,” adds Casani.
For his part, Desrues insists on the fact that “the situation of young people and migration is a structural problem which cannot be resolved overnight and which requires the intervention of King Mohamed VI”. He also underlines that currently “Akhannouch behaves like a technocrat at a time when the population needs politics more than ever”.
Akhannouch arrived in government in 2021 following legislative elections during which the Islamists of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) were replaced by the Independent National Rally (RNI), led by the current leader of the government of the country. Akhannouch is an oil tycoon and the second richest man in the country.
The political exhaustion and complaints of the youngest layers are also motivated by the human rights situation, such as freedom of the press or freedom of expression: “The spaces for debate have been drastically reduced and, as As the Nobel Prize winner in economics, Amartya Sen, points out, the lack of freedom is not only negative for democracy, but also for economic development.”
According to The Economist Intelligence’s Democracy Index, Morocco ranks 93rd out of 167 countries in the world, as well as second place in the Middle East and North Africa region.
In Morocco, local authorities are investigating the incitements circulating on social networks to identify and arrest those involved in the dissemination of information, which mainly incited violence against the police. On September 23, the Tetouan court of first instance sentenced five people who participated in organizing the said appeal on social networks.
