A Kingdom Without A King… Morocco’s Makhzen Regime In Its Darkest Days

The Spanish newspaper “The Independent” devoted in its Sunday issue a lengthy file to the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI, in which it focused on the background of his absence from his country for more than three and a half months.
The file was worked out by the journalist, Francis Carrion, and was prepared by Spanish and Moroccan experts and specialists. The newspaper began its article about the Moroccan king in strong terms: “Commander of the Faithful, the commander of the army, the head of the Council of Scholars, and the owner of the greatest wealth in the country. Mohammed VI is absolutely everything. His image is everywhere. His subjects see him daily anywhere and under any circumstance except for something that no one knows: Mohammed VI is not in the palace. He is a completely absent king, who divides his time between Paris and Gabon, and has made the decision to devote himself to the comforts of life.
The newspaper went on dissecting the deteriorating political, economic and moral situation in the Kingdom of Morocco, bearing the consequences of this situation for King Mohammed VI: “Political parties cannot and do not know what they should do in certain matters, because they are all guided by the instructions of the royal palace. Parliament does what the king says and now politicians, ministers and the prime minister are in total confusion, even the secret services follow suit.
He has always been an absentee king, but this time there is an exacerbation of absenteeism,” the “Independent” quotes an expert on Moroccan affairs, whose name was not mentioned.
Under the heading “Morocco is a kingdom without a king”, the Independent wrote: “The constitution, reformed a decade ago, protects its power, and it touches on three areas: religion, security issues, key strategic political decisions. Mohammed VI is also the supreme ruler. Among the political forces,” the newspaper quotes Pierre Vermin, an expert on Morocco and co-author of the book “The Moroccan Dissidents,” who spoke of two major disappointments in the kingdom’s Makhzen.
The first disappointment is political, says the Spanish newspaper, “The internal political scene has been destroyed, and it is the result of a consciously implemented policy to remove political risks, leaving the monarchy and its men in total control of the country… It is a Chinese-style system and a weak Western democratic facade,” says Pierre Vermin.
As for the second disappointment, according to the newspaper, it takes on the economic, intellectual and technical dimensions. “Morocco deserves two or three times stronger growth than it is. The growth was more regular, but it is still weak and is heading downward, which is very disappointing.”
Expectations for this year indicate that the Moroccan economy will grow by a small percentage of 0.9 percent, while the unemployment rate exceeds 11 percent, and the rate among young people will rise to more than 27 percent.”
The long absence of the king has exacerbated the country’s problems, the newspaper says. Mohamed VI has been out of the country since the spring, especially in Paris, where he has been receiving medical care, and enjoying semi-permanent vacations. Journalist Francis Carrion quotes his Moroccan counterpart, Hicham El Mansouri, who lives in exile in France: “Added to the king’s usual absences, is the political vacuum in the executive system, which makes social tensions even stronger.”
The newspaper adds, quoting journalist Al-Mansouri, who was the victim of the “Pegasus” spying scandal: “But the problem lies above all in the absence of a legitimate government capable of dealing with citizens’ expectations. The weakening of civil society and the suppression of the media and journalists deprives Morocco of channels of counter-power. Therefore, the palace has become more than ever without “barriers” in the face of the growing demands and expectations of the population.
However, the central question that the newspaper tried to answer, is where is the king? Journalist Carrion quotes his sources: “The king has gone back to his old habits. He goes out every night and spends the day resting and sleeping. His health is really precarious. He may have sarcoidosis, a disease that causes inflammation, usually in the lungs, skin and lymph nodes, or Hashimoto’s disease.” It is an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland.
And he added, “The king no longer cares about anything, neither his image, nor what they say about him, nor the most dangerous matters of the state. He has decided to live his life the way he wanted. And this is exactly what he does…Mohammed VI hardly visits his homeland. When duty calls, he travels for one day. He goes back to Paris. He returns to Morocco and talks like a parrot and goes back to France. He doesn’t even sleep in Rabat.