Youth unemployment, rural poverty and political disconnection: this is the other Morocco that the government wants to hide

No matter how much the Moroccan regime tries to project an image of modernity and progress to the world, reality is stubborn and can make its presence felt at any moment. Almost a year ago, the major youth protests of the GenZ 212 group already highlighted the deep discontent of young people. The organization of the Africa Cup of Nations, football, last December, served to divert attention from social problems and showcase the new stadiums, which will be the stage for the 2030 World Cup. But the current migratory crisis has once again revealed that there is a Morocco, backward and hopeless, very different from the official one. If there is one thing the makhzen has excelled at, a name given to the monarch's council of advisors and the network of interests created around them, it is knowing how to sell the country abroad, often with the help of foreign lobbyists and a good handful of banknotes. One only needs to recall the scandal of the so-called Qatargate, that is, the bribery of MEPs and senior officials in Brussels to defend the interests of a foreign country within European institutions. Misnamed because, in fact, Doha merely used a network of corrupt politicians and officials created by Morocco. For this reason, the scheme should have been named Morocco-gate.The narrative they sell is that of a moderate and politically stable country in a region, the Arab world, which has been a real powder keg for decades. Furthermore, they point to the country's economic growth, with an average of 5% GDP growth in recent years, and the construction of major infrastructure, such as the new port of Tangier or the expansion of high-speed train lines. Internationally, they boast of their renewed alliance with Trump's USA. In line with this strengthening of its international projection, Rabat is undertaking a very costly modernization of its army – or a real arms race with Algeria – as its budget has gone from approximately 5 billion euros in 2023 to around 7 billion this year. Now, all these figures and arguments cannot hide the existence of another Morocco: that of precarious households overthrown by the 2023 Marrakech earthquake, that of extreme poverty in rural areas, that of public services in decline, or that of 30% of young people with a university degree who cannot find work and who have stopped believing in mobility in their country. It is from this unglamorous Morocco, from which the tens of thousands of young people who entered Ceuta wanted to flee, many of them risking their lives. This disconnect is so evident that even Mohamed VI has acknowledged it in his latest messages, in which he has committed to collaborating with the government to end the “Morocco of two speeds”. The political omnipresence of the king

In a democratic country, all these shortcomings should be able to be addressed in elections, but in the North African country, fewer and fewer citizens see the ballot boxes as a possible lever for change. All opposition parties that have won elections with promises of deep social reforms, such as the socialists of the USFP or the Islamists of the PJD, have crashed against the same obstacle: the makhzen. Morocco is not a parliamentary monarchy like the United Kingdom or Spain, but an executive monarchy, which means that the king, often through his advisors, has a veto right in all areas of political life. And this translates into the absence of any minimally ambitious wealth redistribution policy.For this reason, both the USFP and the PJD saw how, after one of their leaders held the position of prime minister without making any substantial changes, the ballot boxes punished them harshly and turned them into marginal parties. Once the parties of the moderate opposition to the regime were neutralized, in the last general elections, in September 2021, the RNI, led by Aziz Akhannouch, one of the richest men in the country and a close friend of Mohamed VI, prevailed.To vary, Akhannouch has not lived up to expectations, although, in his case, the promises, rather than political change, were more focused on management efficiency. Once his role is amortized, he will not run for re-election in the elections on September 23. Everything indicates that the candidate of the makhzen this time will be Fouzi Lekjaa, current Minister of Budget and president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, the man in charge of organizing the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will share with Spain and Portugal.  It remains to be seen whether the successes of the Moroccan national football team are capable of drawing Moroccans to the polls and catapulting Lekjaa to victory. Many analysts are skeptical and predict record abstention. In the previous elections, only 50% of voters exercised their right to vote, according to official figures. The figure was even lower in urban areas, where clientelism is weaker. Young people, instead of voting, prefer to emigrate.