At the Rabat court, officials are not worried about the high unemployment rate, the damage the pandemic has done to tourism, or the surge in inflation after the invasion of Ukraine began. To hold court are the visits of the king, Mohammed VI.
“He’s not interested in power. He just wants to live his life,” the palace said. Aside from parties and French-style checked cashmere suits, his lifestyle also includes dating Abu Azaitar, 32, a German prison veteran and mixed martial arts champion. Abu and his brothers Ottman and Omar – the same brothers Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo dated – have become a court powerhouse. To such an extent that, according to some officials interviewed by The Economist, they allow themselves to treat regional dignitaries as if they were “their private drivers.” And not only. Since he met her, the king has been abroad more than in Morocco. And last year he was absent for 200 days. Too unwell to attend the Queen’s funeral in London, the Arab League summit in Algeria or the World Cup games in Morocco, 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 last word on all important matters, and without his leadership, the country’s political factions tend to be divided. “We are an unmanned aircraft,” officials say. For the more conservative part of Moroccan society and for the makhzen (economic and political power), seeing images of the king with the kickboxer instead of next to his wife becomes a problem – Lalla Salma has since been renamed the ‘ghost princess’. When Mohammed ascended the throne in 1999 after the death of his hated ultra-conservative father – in a biography by 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 a Justice and Reconciliation Commission to investigate cases of human rights abuses from his father’s time. Reforms the Moudawana, the code of Islamic law, and makes it easier for women to divorce their husbands. It is building a network of highways and railways. For the press, he is the man who will lead the country from feudal times.
But not everyone likes change and modernization. The restorer has the face of Abdellatif Hammouchi. Hammouchi became head of services in 2007 and head of police in 2015, rising through the ranks of the Moroccan establishment. Then he puts independent academics, journalists, businessmen and lawyers on trial. It puts dozens of human rights activists in prison. There are even people speaking in court from tapped phones, including those of the Azaitar brothers.
To make things even harder for the king is the dissatisfaction of the “subjects”. The Pandora Papers exposed economic corruption, offshore investment by the Moroccan elite and the country’s social inequality. These are the reasons why fans of Raja Casablanca, the kingdom’s most popular football club, have started chanting across 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 sovereign is the monarch, not the parliament. If the Makhzen wants his king back, he must accept his terms. One in particular: Abu Azaitar and his brothers.