RMC Columnist Sparks Outrage with Controversial Remarks About Morocco

Mehdi Ghezzar went too far during his intervention in a one-and-a-half-hour program on the Algerian channel AL24. Reacting to the attempt by the Moroccan representative to remove the "RASD" banner uninvited to the preparatory meeting of the 9th edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which provoked a violent altercation between him and the Polisario representative, he described the Moroccan diplomat as a "pseudo-human being". "I am very happy that the rogue ’Morocco’, that diplomatic rogue state, is humiliated before the whole world," he added, describing the kingdom as a "colonial state". According to him, it is "an insult to diplomacy to say that Morocco has a diplomatic apparatus".

The RMC columnist also addressed the war in Gaza. "The Moroccan kingdom has enacted a decree banning pro-Gaza demonstrations, talking about Gaza victims on television, radio and in mosques [...] It is a country that feeds on the Zionist flies of continuous disinformation," he said. The show host was keen to specify that "the real initiator of this decree is André Azoulay, advisor to King Mohammed VI. "Oh really?" Mehdi Ghezzar exclaimed.

The Algerian columnist did not hesitate to mention the royal pardon of the 4,800 farmers facing prosecution or convicted in cases of illegal cannabis cultivation. According to him, Morocco would be "a state in disrepair", the "refuge of war criminals, major drug dealers, people involved in prostitution, child kidnapping". Ghezzar goes too far: "You want a child, there are some. You want to rape a child, there are some. You want to buy drugs, there are some. You want prostitution, there are some. It’s anything but a Muslim country". He will not hesitate to compare Morocco to the "Thailand of Africa", where everything can be bought.

The Algerian columnist’s remarks sparked a wave of outrage in France. "Total support for André Azoulay, advisor to the King of Morocco, shamefully attacked by Mehdi Ghezzar on an Algerian media. His anti-Semitic remarks are unacceptable and vile," Eric Ciotti, president of the Les Républicains party, lashed out on X. He called on RMC "to immediately suspend this columnist who has also made infamous remarks against the Kingdom of Morocco". "This Mehdi Ghezzar, like a vulgar Salafist, sorts out the countries that are ’really’ Muslim and those that are not. What is he still doing at RMC?" Xavier Golczyk, deputy mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris, was annoyed on the same social network.