Moroccan Official Rejects French-Language Wastewater Agreement, Demands Arabic or Amazigh

Mohamed Achkour denounced the fact that this draft agreement is presented in a foreign language, French in this case. "We are not French and we are not French teachers. We are members of a Moroccan municipal council whose educational levels and fields of work differ. We will discuss the clauses of an agreement to which a financial budget and commitments from all stakeholders will be allocated, so it is inconceivable to discuss this agreement in a foreign language," he explained in a statement to the newspaper Al3omk.

And to add: "The sovereignty of the Arabic language is the sovereignty of a State, a people and institutions... The danger with such agreements is the low educational level of most elected officials, which opens the door to the squandering of public funds and the inability to hold the contracting companies accountable." For the municipal councilor, "any attempt to generalize the French language in state institutions, whether in parliament or in local authorities, is a form of modern protection wrapped in a mask of cooperation and partnership agreements."

"Such agreements benefit French companies through the financing and financial contributions of local authorities in exchange for commitments in French, allowing French speakers to evade these commitments," insists the lawyer and councilor who believes that no Moroccan law obliges him to study a document that is not written in Arabic or Amazigh, the two official languages of the kingdom that the state must "protect, develop and promote", according to Article 5 of the Moroccan Constitution. The study of this document is included in point 7 of the agenda of the next ordinary session of the municipal council of Martil, scheduled for Tuesday, May 7.