The king, the kickboxer and the crisis brewing in Morocco. From 1843 magazine
But Morocco’s 37m people facethat have roiled so much of the Arab world over the past decade: insufficient jobs, soaring inflation and oppressive security services. This has not, so far, resulted in serious upheaval, in part because of the king’s prompt introduction of constitutional reforms at the height of the Arab spring in 2011. But now turmoil is on the horizon, and the king, insiders say, is hardly to be seen.
As the brothers thrived, court officials grew ashen-faced. In theory Morocco has a constitutional monarchy. In reality Mohammed is far more than a figurehead. He has the final say on every matter of importance, and without him, the country’s political factions tend to descend into impotent bickering. The Middle East is littered with the wrecks of regimes that have failed to act decisively in moments of crisis. “We’re a plane without a pilot,” frets a former official.
The king sits at the pinnacle of this system. After the Arab spring some constitutional changes were introduced giving more power to elected officials, but the monarch can still rule as an autocrat if he wants to. He is head of the armed forces, the ultimate judicial authority, and can dismiss parliament by royal decree.
Officially, he was interning at the European Commission. But Europe’s nightlife seems to have appealed to him more than its committee rooms. According to another biography of Mohammed by Ferran Sales Aige, anjournalist, Hassan’s spies informed him that the young prince was frequenting bars. The king’s dissatisfaction with his son grew. “A chromosome error,” he was once reported to have remarked in despair.
Within months of taking the throne he began to fire senior officials, starting with the interior minister rumoured to have spied on him in Nice. He appointed an Equity and Reconciliation Commission to review cases of human-rights abuses under his father. He reformed the, the Islamic legal code, making it easier for women to divorce their husbands. He built a network of motorways and railways across the country.
Makhzen insiders and courtiers started to complain that Abu and his brothers acted as if they were royals themselves. “They treat provincial governors like their drivers” Abu was given some official duties – Mohammed put him in charge of a sports association which invited famous footballers to an event celebrating Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara in 1976.insiders and courtiers started to complain that Abu and his brothers acted as if they were royals themselves. They “boss around ministers”, grumbles one courtier. “They treat provincial governors like their drivers,” adds a businessman.
Morocco’s security services have long used coercive methods to silence critics, but Hammouchi’s reign is associated with one practice in particular:. Journalists and dissidents say security agents have secretly recorded their most intimate moments and then confronted them with the evidence. Those who continue to challenge the regime find that compromising videos are sent to their relatives or turn up in press outlets loyal to Hammouchi.
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