Young Moroccan protesters have been taking to the streets in the hope of persuading King Mohammed VI to fire Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and deliver long-promised reforms to ailing public services.
In an address to parliament on Friday, King Mohammed called for accelerating reforms to create jobs for young people, improve public services, and reduce regional inequalities by giving greater attention to the mountain and oasis regions.
He urged “a faster implementation pace and stronger impacts from the next-generation of local development programmes,” which he had asked the government to prepare in July.
Priority areas include job creation for young people and “tangible progress in the education and health sectors, as well as local rehabilitation policies,” he said.
His speech followed protests on Thursday when the leaderless Gen Z 212 collective staged anticorruption protests in Tangiers, Casablanca and in the capital, Rabat.
The king did not address the protesters directly in his speech, but said that there should be no inconsistencies or competition between the country’s national flagship projects and social programmes.
Morocco’s unemployment rate stands at 12.8 percent, with youth unemployment reaching 35.8 percent and 19 percent among graduates, official data showed.
The protests erupted last month after eight pregnant women died at a hospital in Agadir and have targeted issues like Morocco’s lavish spending on infrastructure, such as stadiums for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, amid the neglect of facilities for healthcare and education.
Gen Z 212 has been organising the nationwide protests, which have so far seen at least three people killed in clashes with security forces, on social media platforms like TikTok and Discord, where it now has more than 200,000 followers.
Ahead of Thursday evening’s demonstrations, government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas made new calls for dialogue with Gen Z 212. “The message has been received,” he was quoted by AFP as saying. He stressed that the authorities were “accelerating projects”, particularly in healthcare.
Last week, Gen Z 212 published a public letter to the king, asking him to dismiss the government and corrupt political parties, release political detainees and convene a national forum to bring corruption to account.
“We, the youth of Morocco, are requesting your majesty to intervene for a profound and just reform that restores rights and punish the corrupt,” the group wrote in the letter.
Since September 27, security forces have arrested hundreds of participants in clashes that rights groups have criticised as heavy-handed.
Local media reported last week that 66 participants were facing vandalism charges linked to the protests in northern Morocco.