King Mohammed VI
RABAT, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — King Mohammed VI is preparing to mark 20 years on the throne of Morocco.
The kingdom’s towns and cities have been decked out with flags to mark the anniversary on Tuesday, while newspapers have published editorials praising the monarch’s achievements.
When he took the throne in 1999 following the death of his father Hassan II, the then-35-year-old inspired great expectations, earning the nickname “king of the poor”.
In his first speech as king he listed the ills facing the country: poverty, unemployment and social inequality.
Twenty years later, those same ills haunt the kingdom, where news magazine Maroc Hebdo recently ran the headline “It’s better not to be Moroccan in 2019”.
The article slammed “the persistence of unemployment…, the slow pace of structural change and the deepening of inequalities”, along with the dearth of opportunities for the young who make up a third of the 35 million population.
Royal advisor Omar Azziman admitted that there was “dissatisfaction” in the country, saying “we can’t find jobs for our young people, we have regions that are too poor.”
As the Arab Spring swept across North Africa and beyond, Mohammed VI nipped swelling protests in the bud by offering up constitutional reforms and promising to curb his powers.
According to Abdellatif Menouni, a constitutional scholar and royal advisor since 2011, under Mohammed VI “most of (what is needed) in terms of democracy has been done, it just needs to be deepened”.
But seven out of ten young Moroccans, seeing few prospects, say they want to emigrate, according to the Arab Barometer survey.
The International Monetary Fund has urged the kingdom to move towards a “more inclusive” model of development and tackle inequality, saying it had been slow to push through reforms.
Mohammed VI, who retains control over the country’s most strategic sectors, has overseen an economic strategy focused on attracting foreign investment, from roads and airports to the vast Tanger Med port. — NNN-AGENCIES