2023-06-04 15:39:15
Long abroad, King Mohammed VI has been increasing public activities for several weeks in Morocco. A return to the fore which seems intended to answer the questions of the foreign media regarding his prolonged absence.
After a three-month stay in Gabon, with his friend Ali Bongo, the Cherifian monarch returned to Morocco in March, on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan.
Since then, he has not left the kingdom, having spent 200 days outside Morocco in 2022, mainly in France and Gabon, according to an unofficial count.
- The king presides: Ramadan religious talks, charity operations, meeting on water stress, launch of construction sites, council of ministers…
- The king inaugurates: a medical center in Casablanca, a new university hospital in Tangier, a professional training institute near Rabat…
- The king repeats: senior officials and appoints a new army chief.
“The objective is to restore the authority of monarchical power, which passes less through the regular functioning of institutions than through the physical presence of the king.“, explains the journalist and academic Omar Brouksy on the online site Orient XXI.
His return to the fore comes as several hundred activists from the Moroccan trade union left denounced, this Sunday, June 4, in Casablanca, in western Morocco, “the cost of living“. They also pointed fingers “government inaction“, despite the ban on demonstrations.
“the king is here“
This omnipresence of Mohammed VI coincides with an investigation by the British weekly The Economist on “the mystery of the absent king of morocco” and other articles published abroad.
According to certain commentators, part of the seraglio would share the questions of foreign newspapers on the absence of the king. The royal palace did not react.
“Some, malicious spirits and yielding to peddling from the foreign press, believed with impunity to interfere in the private life of the Sovereign accusing him of being often outside more than in Morocco“, deplores the newspaper Maroc Diplomatique.
“Today, they become disillusioned and come to terms with the facts: the king is there, back, he reigns and if one can say, also governs“, opines its editorial writer Hassan Alaoui.
In mid-May, Mohammed VI attended, at the royal palace in Rabat, the presentation of a prototype of the first 100% Moroccan car. On this occasion we saw him very thin in his costume without knowing the reason for this thinning.
Since 2018, the state of health of the head of state has been a source of speculation in Morocco and beyond the borders of the kingdom.
Last February, a flu forced him to postpone a planned visit to Senegal. In 2021, he underwent heart surgery in Rabat, following a first intervention in January 2018 in Paris.
Sulphurous trio
If the form of the monarch and his activities are scrutinized, the local and foreign media are also interested in his close entourage, more specifically in three German-Moroccan brothers surrounded by a sulphurous aura, Abubakr, Ottman and Omar Azaitar, whose two first are champions of mixed martial arts (MMA).
It was the Moroccan electronic newspaper Hespress which was the first, in a series of articles posted from May 2021, criticized the trio’s deleterious influence on the sovereign. Hespress castigates “the pranks“of the Azaitar, to the”abundant criminal capital“in Germany, alarmed at their”obscene display of trappings of wealth“, in particular to assume the symbols of the Alawite dynasty for vulgar commercial and media purposes.
“At a time when Morocco is on the verge of a social crisis, caused mainly by the high cost of living, inflation and rising prices“, was offended by this site close to power.
According to a study by the High Commission for Planning (HCP), Morocco fell back in 2022 to the level of poverty and vulnerability of 2014, despite the overall resilience of the economy. Despite repeated criticism of the controversial siblings, the royal household has remained silent.
The question of succession in minds
“The king is once once more vigorously exercising his intense activities following rumors peddled by Morocco’s adversaries regarding his health and the exercise of his constitutional functions“, welcomes the Arabic-language weekly Al Ayam.
Mohammed VI has reigned since July 1999, when he succeeded his father Hassan II. He will be 60 on August 21. If it is not topical, the question of his succession is not absent from minds.
Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, just 20 years old and still a student at the Polytechnic University of Rabat, has been prepared since birth to ascend the throne. He now accompanies his father in most official activities.
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