Mohammed VI of Morocco


Mohammed VI is King of Morocco. A member of the Alawi dynasty, he has reigned since 1999.
Mohammed was born during the reign of his father, King Hassan II. At an early age, he began partaking in public engagements on behalf of his father. Upon ascending to the throne following Hassan's death, Mohammed initially introduced several reforms and changed the family code to grant more rights to women in Morocco.
In 2011, protests in Morocco that were considered part of the wider Arab Spring occurred against alleged government corruption. In response, Mohammed enacted several reforms and introduced a new constitution. These reforms were passed by public referendum on 1 July 2011. His other reforms have included modernising the economy and military force of Morocco, promoting non-sectarian Islam and Berber culture, including designating Standard Moroccan Amazigh as an official national language alongside Standard Arabic and Yennayer as a national holiday, and curtailing the influence of religious extremism.
In foreign policy, Mohammed continued in the moderate tradition established by his father, who was held to be a moderating influence among Arab nations and in relations between the Arab world and the West. He diversified Morocco's ties with key global players, including the United States, the European Union, and China, and prioritized relations with African countries and international recognition of Morocco's claim to the territory of Western Sahara. Morocco became the sixth Arab League country to normalize ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
Mohammed has vast business holdings across several economic sectors in Morocco. In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth at over. Leaked diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks in 2010 led to allegations of corruption in the royal court, implicating him and his closest advisors.

Early life and education

Mohammed was born on 21 August 1963, as the second child and eldest son of King Hassan II and his wife, Lalla Latifa. His father was keen on giving him a religious and political education from an early age; at the age of four, he started attending the Quranic school at the Royal Palace. His educational routine commenced at 6 am with an hour-long recitation of the Quran, followed by formal lessons. He completed his first primary and secondary studies at the Collège Royal, a specialized college constructed within the fortified walls of the palace. Hassan II, desiring his son to experience competitive pressure, selected twelve classmates recognized for their intellect to accompany Mohammed in his studies. As depicted in Le Roi prédateur, a 2012 biography authored by two French journalists, there is an account of Hassan instructing his aides to administer twenty lashes to Mohammed when he appeared to lag in his studies. Mohammed's education was supervised by Mohammed Aouad, a diplomat and professor who later became a minister in the government, and assisted by Moroccan and European governesses. Mohammed excelled in languages.
Mohammed's first public engagement was in 1971, when, at the age of eight, he received United States Vice President Spiro Agnew at the Royal Palace in Rabat. At the age of ten, he represented his father at the funeral of French president Georges Pompidou in 1974.
Mohammed attained his Baccalaureate in 1981, before gaining a bachelor's degree in law at the Mohammed V University at Agdal in 1985. His research paper dealt with "the Arab-African Union and the Strategy of the Kingdom of Morocco in matters of International Relations". He was furthermore appointed president of the Pan Arab Games, and was commissioned a Brigadier General of the Royal Moroccan Army on 26 November 1985. Mohammed served as the Coordinator of the Offices and Services of the Royal Armed Forces until 1994.
In 1987, Mohammed obtained his first Certificat d'Études Supérieures in political sciences, and in July 1988 he obtained a Diplôme d'Études Approfondies in public law. In November 1988, he trained in Brussels with Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission.
According to a biography by Ferran Sales Aige, Mohammed's father received reports from his spies indicating that the young prince was visiting bars regularly. This led to a deepening dissatisfaction from the king towards his son. In a moment of despair, Hassan II was rumoured to have described his son's behaviour as a "chromosome error." Mohammed was sent to study law in Nice, with his activities closely monitored by the interior minister dispatched by his father. He obtained his PhD in law with distinction on 29 October 1993 from the French University of Nice Sophia Antipolis for his thesis on "EEC-Maghreb Relations". On 12 July 1994, he was promoted to the military rank of Major General, and that same year he became president of the High Council of Culture and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Moroccan Army.
According to the New York Times, before ascending to the throne, Mohammed "gained a reputation as a playboy during the years he spent waiting in the wings, showing a fondness for fast cars and nightclubs." According to a childhood friend, Mohammed harboured fantasies about the world beyond the palace walls and seldom ventured outside. One of his favourite songs was "Breakfast in America" by the English rock band Supertramp, which celebrates the allure of travel by jumbo jet. Over time, a noticeable estrangement developed between him and his father. He actively avoided encounters with Hassan II, even during his visits to Morocco. Instead, he frequently frequented Amnesia, an illicit club located underground in Rabat. According to Le Roi prédateur, Mohammed's close friend from school, Fouad Ali El Himma, facilitated his visits to Amnesia by installing a private lift from his apartment above that descended directly to the club's premises.

Accession and early reign

Mohammed ascended the throne on the death of his father on 23 July 1999. His enthronement took place on 30 July, on the occasion of which he addressed his people on national television, promising to take on poverty and corruption, while creating jobs and improving Morocco's human rights record. Islamist conservatives opposed his reformist rhetoric, and some of his reforms angered fundamentalists. His initial directives also included the dismissal of his father's hardline interior minister, Driss Basri, and the appointment of some of his former classmates to key positions in the state bureaucracy.
Mohammed and his sister, Princess Lalla Meryem, made a state visit to the United States in June 2000, as guests of the president Bill Clinton. The Bush administration designated Morocco as a major non-NATO ally in 2004. The two countries later signed a free-trade agreement in 2006, the only one of its kind between the United States and an African country, which was met with some criticism within Morocco due to increasing trade deficit.
In February 2004, Mohammed enacted a new family code, which granted women more power. In July, he announced that Morocco would lift visa restrictions for Algerians, with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika reciprocating the measure in 2005. Mohammed also created the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with researching human rights violations under Hassan II. This move was welcomed by many as promoting democracy but was also criticized because the commission's reports did not name the perpetrators. According to human rights organizations, human rights violations are still common in Morocco.
In March 2006, the government created the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs, an advisory committee which defends Morocco's claim to Western Sahara, and whose members are appointed by the king. The CORCAS proposed a plan for Western Sahara's autonomy, provided it remains under Moroccan sovereignty. Mohammed went on to visit Western Sahara in 2006 and 2015.

2011 protests and constitutional reform

The 2011 Moroccan protests, led by the 20 February Movement, were primarily motivated by corruption and general political discontentment, as well as by the hardships of the global economic crisis. Then-recent revolutions influenced the demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt which overthrew their respective leaders, and demands by protesters included "urgent" political and social reforms, including the relinquishment of some of the King's powers.
In a speech delivered on 9 March 2011, Mohammed said that parliament would receive "new powers that enable it to discharge its representative, legislative, and regulatory mission". In addition, the powers of the judiciary were granted greater independence from the king, who announced that he was empanelling a committee of legal scholars to produce a draft constitution by June 2011. On 1 July, voters approved a set of political reforms proposed by the king in a referendum.
The reforms consisted of the following:
  • Standard Moroccan Amazigh is designated an official national language, along with standard Arabic.
  • The state preserves and protects the Hassaniya Arabic dialect and all the linguistic components of Moroccan culture as a heritage of the nation.
  • The prime minister presides over the Council of Government, which prepares the general policy of the state; previously the king held this position. The prime minister also has the power to dissolve the parliament.
  • The king now must appoint the prime minister from the party that wins the most seats in the parliamentary elections, but it can be any member of the winning party and not necessarily the party's leader. Previously, the king could nominate anybody he wanted for this position regardless of the election results. That was usually the case when no party had a big advantage over the other parties, in terms of the number of seats in the parliament.
  • The king is no longer "sacred or holy" but the "integrity of his person" is "inviolable".
  • High administrative and diplomatic posts are now appointed by the prime minister and the ministerial council which is presided over by the king; previously the latter exclusively held this power.
  • The parliament has the power to grant amnesty. Previously this was also exclusively held by the king.
  • The king guarantees the independence of the judiciary system from the legislative and executive branches.
  • Women are guaranteed "civic and social" equality with men. Previously, only "political equality" was guaranteed, though the 1996 constitution granted all citizens equality in terms of rights before the law.
  • The king retains complete control over the armed forces and the judiciary as well as matters about religion and foreign policy, as well as the authority to appoint and dismiss prime ministers.
  • In theory, all citizens have freedom of thought, ideas, artistic expression and creation. Previously only free speech and the freedom of circulation and association were guaranteed. However, criticizing or directly opposing the king is still punishable with prison.