Hindustan Times ·
In Morocco, scandal is weakening the king’s shaky rule
Upcoming elections will do little to shore it up | World News
Upcoming elections will do little to shore it up
FEW EVENTS have been a bigger indictment of King Muhammad VI’s rule than “Throne Day” on July 30th. The Moroccan king’s motorcade sped along an empty highway from his beach hideaway at Mdiq, in the north of the country, to a ceremony where members of the elite kissed his hand. Heading in the opposite direction, the poor flocked to Ceuta, the nearby Spanish enclave, as news spread on social media that the gates were open to Europe. By foot, road, rail and dinghy they came, until more than 70,000, most of them Moroccans oblivious to the annual oath of allegiance to their monarch, had risked their lives to flee Muhammad’s realm. About 100 died trying.
On paper, Muhammad’s kingdom is a rare Arab model of stability and modernisation. It boasts a thriving car industry, is expanding its high-speed railway and has built the Mediterranean’s largest port. It attracts foreign investment, cultivates close relations with Europe and America and has developed a growing arms industry thanks to its ties with Israel. Morocco’s monarchy has endured for four centuries. The succession is settled. A good number of Moroccans still believe the king, who bears the title Commander of the Faithful, is endowed with sacred authority.
