Morocco's "Throne Party" speech: a message of determination and an outstretched hand for Algeria

The Throne Speech during the reign of King Mohammed VI became an occasion to assess the state's performance, take stock of the country's economic and social situation and foresee the future with respect to highly topical issues. This is why Moroccan public opinion, national and even international (through foreign representations in Rabat), looks forward to what the Throne Speech brings back, and the clear and implicit missions it conveys to interact with topical issues or with strategic dimensions that concern Morocco and the countries of the region or international issues that require careful treatment by the international system.

The current speech of 30 July did not limit the approach, as it came with a deep strategic dimension, but at the same time made a careful analysis of current and future issues, all within the framework of a humanitarian approach imbued with the values of solidarity, good neighbourliness and a culture of tolerance.

The common thread running through the entire speech is the need to draw on the strengths of the Moroccan system, especially at the level of values and models that have proven their effectiveness, in order to face the difficulties, the difficulties of the crisis that culminated in high prices and the deterioration of citizens' purchasing power, and the structural challenges related to the empowerment of women and support for their capacities, or those related to the success of the workshops that structure social coverage, or the challenge of overcoming obstacles to the flow of investments, or the outstretched hand of brothers in Algeria to build the edifice of a neighbourly relationship based on a common history, a culture and a brotherhood that extends its roots throughout history.

With regard to the empowerment of women, the Moroccan monarch stressed the need to overcome the perspective of positive discrimination, which, although it has enabled the country to make progress, has shown its limitations in responding to women's problems. The Moroccan monarch stressed the need to move towards a human rights perspective based on equality, which remains an ambition that all Moroccans should strive to achieve in the near future.

The family code that was adopted in 2004 was an achievement in itself, says Morocco's king. However, time has revealed weaknesses in its implementation or the limitations of some of its provisions. So there is now a need to reconsider these issues and deal with them in an insightful manner, at the legislative and institutional level, and if the case requires a moderate jurisprudential treatment that adopts 'ijtihad' and intentions if the Quranic text is not explicit about them.

What matters is to maintain social stability by preserving the dignity of women and ensuring the conditions for building a balanced and supportive family. These are the same values that prevailed in Morocco's exemplary handling of the effects of the crisis (COVID-19), says the Moroccan monarch, where direct transfers were made to benefit the poor, support to maintain job opportunities in the private sector, guaranteeing market supply, buying and circulating vaccines free of charge despite their high cost, and working to generalise health coverage to ensure health security conditions in which everyone has access to quality health services that preserve the dignity of patients and their companions.

Health coverage is part of a new approach to social issues, which also includes family allowances and compensation for loss of employment, as well as the generalisation of the right to retirement. Thus, while health coverage will be generalised by the end of 2022, the family compensation programme for families suffering from fragility or poverty or without school-age children (the total number is seven million) will be launched in 2023, which is why King Mohammed VI is calling on the government to speed up the creation of the social registry to ensure that data is available to accurately identify families in need and that family compensation will increase their ability to meet the requirements of life.

The crisis casts its shadows over the country and the people, as it does everywhere in the world. This is why the recovery that the national economy experienced after COVID-19 is held back by the wave of inflation that swept the world, which was only exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, especially in a period known as the succession of years of severe drought at the national level. State intervention to mitigate the effects of drought had a positive impact on deserts and the level of rain-dependent agriculture. The state also intervened to inject an additional Dh16 billion ($1.6 billion), on top of the Dh16 billion approved under the 2022 budget, to support the prices of flour, sugar and butane gas.

However, King Mohammed VI insisted on the need for the government to intervene to combat speculation and attempts to exploit the crisis to increase prices.

Nevertheless, one must remain hopeful and call for optimism and trust in the features that characterise the Moroccan economy to get out of the crisis, says the Moroccan monarch.

Attracting investment, supporting the domestic product and supporting exports are all policies that will lead to job and wealth creation. This requires, in my opinion, more rigour on the part of the administration and the government, in terms of investor protection and the removal of obstacles put in place by the Administration (there are those who put obstacles to investment, says King Mohammed VI, for personal gain) rather than him and improving the conditions of access to real estate and financing and obtaining direct support.

The same spirit of optimism prevailed in King Mohammed VI's appeal to Algeria's brothers to overcome the causes of tension and work together to lay the foundations for solid economic integration that serves the interests of the two brotherly peoples. An appeal from the heart that implicitly affirms that the bonds of brotherhood are too deep and strong to be swayed by media ramblings here and there, to sow the logic of contention between two countries that share history, geography, culture and a common struggle against colonialism.

He therefore called on Moroccans to stop attacking Algeria through social media platforms, with the implicit hope that Algerian leaders will follow suit and end the abuses at the hands of those who want evil in the region. He called on the Algerian leadership to join hands and look to the future in a spirit of fraternity and good neighbourliness.

A message rich in missions, strong in the desire to rise to the challenges, and with a humanist focus on the values of solidarity, synergy and good neighbourliness. Through it, reality was examined, without dwelling on it, but the hope was sown in souls that relief is near, only for each one to show a sense of responsibility, to oneself, to one's neighbour, to one's people and to history. Whoever has this edifice of values is not afraid to go through potholes, no matter how hard their impact on souls and people may be.