At the court in Rabat, officials are not concerned about the high unemployment rate, the damage that the pandemic has caused to tourism or the increase in inflation after the invasion began in Ukraine. To hold court are the visits of the king, Mohammed VI.
“He’s not interested in power. All he wants to lead is his own life », they say in the palace. His lifestyle, in addition to parties, French-style checked cashmere suits, includes frequenting Abu Azaitar, 32, a veteran of German prisons and mixed martial arts champion. Abu and his brothers Ottman and Omar — the same ones Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo frequented — have become a force at court. To such an extent that, according to some officials questioned by theEconomist, allow themselves to treat regional dignitaries as if they were “their private chauffeurs”. And not only. Since he met them, the king has been more abroad than in Morocco. And last year he was absent for 200 days. Too unwell to attend the Queen’s funeral in London, or the Arab League summit in Algeria, or Morocco’s World Cup matches, when the Spanish prime minister arrived in Rabat earlier this year after a diplomatic crisis over Western Sahara , he was elsewhere.
Beyond the gossip, the question is political. Morocco is a constitutional monarchy and the king is much more than a representative figure. He has the final say on every important issue, and without him directing, the country’s political factions tend to split. “We are an unmanned aircraft,” officials say. For the more conservative part of Moroccan society and for the makhzen (the economic and political power) see the images of the king col kickboxer instead of alongside his wife – Lalla Salma has now been renamed the “ghost princess” – it is becoming a problem. When in 1999 Mohammed ascends the throne after the death of his hated ultra-conservative father — in a biography of two French journalists we read that Hassan even frustrated his son — Mohammed seems destined to become an energetic and modern king. He fires hostile officials, appoints an Equity and Reconciliation Commission to look into cases of human rights violations from his father’s time. Reform the moudawanathe Islamic legal code, making it easier for women to divorce their husbands. It builds a network of highways and railways. For the press he is the man who will lead the country out of the feudal era.
However, not everyone likes changes and modernization. The restorer has the face of Abdellatif Hammouchi. Became chief of services in 2007 and of police in 2015, Hammouchi climbs the ranks of the Moroccan establishment. Then he puts independent academics, journalists, businessmen and lawyers on trial. He puts dozens of human rights activists in jail. There are even those who speak of bugged phones at court, including those of the Azaitar brothers.
To make the air even heavier for the king, the discontent of the “subjects”. The Pandora Papers exposed economic corruption, offshore investment by the Moroccan elite and the country’s social inequality are the reasons why fans of Raja Casablanca, the kingdom’s most popular football club, have started chanting about stands: “Thieves, you are stealing the country’s wealth.”
Few Moroccans dare to utter the word “abdication”. There is talk of a “Spanish model” and of Juan Carlos of Spain, convinced to cede the crown to his son after a series of scandals. But Mohammed has an advantage over Juan Carlos. In Morocco, the monarch, not the parliament, is sovereign. If he makhzen rewants his king must accept his terms. One above all: Abu Azaitar and his brothers.