Amazigh Movement in Morocco Mulls Formation of Political Party

The time for unity has come for the Amazigh movement. Activists have decided to "settle once and for all" the debate within the movement, particularly regarding its transformation into a party or a political association, the movement having been divided for years into several cultural, political, social and linguistic organizations and currents, reports Hespress. They then decided to organize a national conference to discuss the issue.

"The holding of a national conference of the Amazigh movement is a central and old idea among the members of the preparatory committee and has been the subject of many meetings and discussions for years," said Abdellah Bouchtart, one of the members of the movement. According to him, the movement "is experiencing great organizational confusion, a division at the level of discourse, and stagnation at the level of political, cultural and social dynamics". He thus affirmed that this situation is exploited by some for objectives that do not serve the substance of the demands for which the movement was created and for which it has struggled over the generations.

It "was not serious today to talk about achieving a claims agenda and defending the Amazigh in this division, especially since the Amazigh language has now become official and awaits the implementation of its officialization 12 years after the adoption of the new constitution," Abdellah Bouchtart pointed out, stressing the need to unify efforts and positions and to define strategies in order to first defend the independence of the movement, and to protect it from attempts at political recovery and predation.

"The idea of organizing a national conference was born from the feeling among Amazigh activists that a stage is ending and another is beginning, with the promulgation of the organic law and the challenges of activating the official status of Amazigh, and the involvement of a number of associative actors in direct partisan political work," explained for his part the researcher and Amazigh activist Ahmed Assid, stressing that the old methods and objectives of the associative struggle have been exhausted, and the main reason that makes this conference indispensable is the need to renew the role of the Amazigh movement in the programs of activation of the official character. "It is not enough to rely solely on official institutions, but it is absolutely necessary to associate civil society and experts on the Amazigh issue," he added.