Morocco’s King Faces GenZ Fury: Royal Speech to Address Mounting Social Unrest

"We would like to inform you that the protest movement will be temporarily suspended until Thursday, [...] in order to reorganize to ensure greater effectiveness," announced the GenZ 212 Moroccan youth collective in a statement published on Facebook. A break announced before the speech that King Mohammed VI is expected to deliver this Friday, October 10th in Rabat, on the occasion of the opening of the parliamentary session. "Nicknamed the ’king of the poor’ in Morocco several decades ago, he must now face a public opinion disappointed by the slowness of progress and the worsening of economic inequalities," observes Associated Press.

GenZ 212 has been organizing protests in many Moroccan cities since September 27th. The demands of this movement mainly concern issues of education, health, employment - youth unemployment reached 36.7% in 2024, with 492,000 young people aged 15 to 24 without a job - and social justice. The trigger for these social protests was the death at the public hospital in Agadir of eight pregnant women admitted for caesarean sections. The unrest has resulted in 3 deaths and 400 injuries across the country. Isolated incidents of looting and arson have been reported in some cities. These troubles are the most significant since the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which prompted King Mohammed VI to delegate some powers to Parliament. They are also the most violent since the 2016 protests in the Rif region.

On Thursday evening, many protesters said they were eagerly awaiting King Mohammed VI’s speech, and that they hope he will respond to their demands and appease their anger towards politicians like Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, whose resignation they have demanded. "The people want the king to intervene," the protesters chanted. The sovereign should return to themes he has already addressed during past periods of unrest and in a speech delivered earlier this year, according to the same source. In this speech, he had declared that he would not accept a "two-speed country" filled with inequalities. "Whatever the infrastructure built and the level of economic development achieved, I will only be satisfied if our achievements contribute, in a tangible way, to improving the living conditions of citizens of all social classes, and in all fields and regions," he said in a speech delivered in July in Tétouan, the coastal city where he spends a large part of the summer.

In a letter addressed to the royal palace more than a week ago, the protesters called for the dismissal of Aziz Akhannouch and his government, the release of political prisoners, and the creation of a body responsible for holding corrupt politicians accountable. "We, the youth of Morocco, ask Your Majesty to intervene for a deep and fair reform that restores rights and punishes the corrupt," the group writes in the letter. An action commented on by Abdeslam Maghraoui, a political scientist at Duke University: "People say ’Long live the king,’ but they also show that they know he is responsible and that the power is in his hands."