Morocco mobilises with the #Proud_of_Our_King campaign in support of Mohammed VI

The digital initiative #Proud_of_Our_King has generated a historic mobilisation in Morocco, where citizens, activists and political parties are expressing their strong support for King Mohammed VI and the Moroccan monarchy. Since its launch, the trend has been at the top of the country's social media trends for more than four days, followed by Le Monde, which has also been trending in France.​

The campaign comes in response to a series of six articles in the French newspaper Le Monde, considered biased, and seeks to highlight the country's economic, social and political achievements, as well as reinforce its image of national and international stability. One of the most repeated slogans was ‘Morocco and Mohammed VI, one family, one king, one people’ and ‘With him and under his leadership, we are one hand against all.’ 

Moroccans unanimously expressed their support for the institutions. Among the main mobilisers of the campaign is the writer Abdelkader Kaloul, who developed a thread on his social media accounts with all the achievements of Mohammed VI's reign during his 26 years on the throne. ‘A hired pen cannot change a reality witnessed by the world,’ he said on his social media accounts. 

Numerous activists have warned that this media approach by Le Monde stems from a strategy being developed by part of the French establishment to try to put pressure on Morocco in order to create rifts in Moroccan national politics and, above all, to sustain the growth and expansion of Moroccan foreign policy. This stance seeks to ignore all the economic, social and developmental achievements of the country over the last two decades.  

In addition to activists and Moroccans, politicians have also presented their positions regarding the false information published by Le Monde. The most vocal on social media were the Popular Movement and the Istiqlal Party. However, political figures such as Abdelilah Benkirane, secretary-general of the Justice and Development Party, stressed that Morocco is a stable and secure country where internal affairs are dealt with gradually and always supervised by King Mohammed VI. 

Along the same lines, professor of public law Omar Al-Sharqawi stated that the French newspaper had deliberately lied by presenting impressions and rumours as facts, ignoring reality and omitting all the achievements made by the country over the last 26 years. 

Morocco has made many advances at the national level, but also at the international level in its relations with Africa and the major powers. Above all, however, Morocco has positioned itself as one of the most important countries on the continent through the promotion of projects such as the Africa-Atlantic gas pipeline, the Rabat Process on Atlantic African States (PEAA), and the Royal Atlantic Facade Initiative, through which Mohammed VI aims to improve the lives of more than 400 million people living in 14 West African countries, from Nigeria to Morocco. 

At the same time, the Council of the Community of Moroccans Living Abroad stated that the media campaigns against the King by the French newspaper Le Monde cannot affect relations between Morocco and France, as the King acts as the country's official representative. The Fakih Tetuán Foundation also condemned the French newspaper's focus on the King's health, considering this media approach a violation of journalistic ethics and a selective exploitation of images and symbols to create a negative image.

The alignment of the entire Moroccan society, including journalists and politicians, shows that national unity is very strong and that the figure of the King has been and continues to be very important for the country's growth.