MOROCCO

Letters from Morocco: The [Other] King’s Speech

A few weeks ago, on a train ride from Rabat to Fes, a magical, imperial city in the north of Morocco, I sat across from a young man who was reading the latest edition of TelQuel, a French-language Moroccan weekly magazine that is known for its unabashedly candid criticism of the Moroccan government. Sprawled across the cover was a picture of King Mohammed VI flanked by the country’s bright red flags and a bold headline that read, Il l’a Fait!, or in English, “He did it!”

Referring to the king’s recent speech in which he outlined a series of sweeping constitutional reforms, the magazine captured the same sense of excitement and disbelief that many Moroccans feel.

Just weeks after protests rocked the country from Tangier to Agadir, the 47-year-old monarch announced that he would deliver a state address, and deliver he did. Offering a seven-point proposal of reforms that would ultimately limit his power and give citizens more control of government, he seemingly answered the call of youth activists who have been swept up in the winds of change blowing across the region.