Analysts: Prospects for Reform in Morocco

Shadi Hamid, the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center and Anouar Boukhars, a former fellow at The Brookings Institution  wrote that the United States and European Union should stop “praising” King Mohammed VI’s promises of reform and instead ensure that certain priorities are implemented through the reforms.  These priorities include freedom of association and speech, limiting the powers of the king and the royal court, allowing elected institutions to increase their influence, including parliament.

In addition, Hamid and Boukhars emphasized that the constitution still allows the king to utilize unlimited power to block any changes.  ”Constitutions matter, but what matters more is what people do with them,” they wrote citing that the “best case scenario is that the king follows the spirit rather than the letter of the new constitution, respects the will of his people, and resists the urge to intervene in affairs of the elected government.”

Hamid and Boukhars also asserted that it is up to the Moroccan people and political organizations to put pressure on the government to implement the reforms in an effective way and “challenge the monarchy’s prerogatives.”