The reimagining of how Rabat's concrete brutalist Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex and other stadia could bring Morocco into the 21st century and then host arguably the globe's biggest event with the 2030 World Cup owes much to the drive of King Mohammed VI (‘M6') described in parts of Morocco's increasingly compliant media as ‘le roi bâtisseur' (the builder king)...
Regional rival Morocco is basking in an Africa Cup of Nations tournament played out in glitzy new stadia and served by a big infrastructure spend that will reach its peak when the kingdom co-hosts the 2030 Fifa World Cup that King Mohammed VI (‘M6') has placed at the heart of a cannily populist development policy...
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The prevailing narrative in Morocco has it that King Mohammed VI (M6) has presided over social uplift impressive new infrastructure and major progress in achieving the central policy aim of formalising the kingdom's ownership of the disputed Western Sahara...
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King Mohammed VI said the resolution was ‘opening a new and victorious chapter in the process of enshrining the Moroccan character of the Sahara which is intended to bring this issue to a definitive close'...
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Getting President Trump's first administration to recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as a quid pro quo for the kingdom officially recognising Israel in late 2020 was a diplomatic coup for King Mohammed VI (M6) (AC Vol 61 No 25 King reaps Saharan dividend)...
In Morocco there is no sign that – after first loosening his grip over the last decade then tightening it again – King Mohammed VI (M6) plans to offer much space for the opposition when parliamentary elections are held...
Vol 65 No 25 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
This clearly helped to lay the foundations for a more collaborative relationship with Algiers – until it was sorely tested by an inevitable row after France shifted to a clearly more pro-Moroccan position over Western Sahara with Macron pushing the point further last month with a high-profile full state visit to Rabat as a guest of King Mohammed VI (AC Vol 65 No 23 It's the economy Macron...
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As street protests raged in Casablanca and Rabat against Israel's war in Gaza King Mohammed VI's government has been increasingly uneasy about that public commitment – although it has long had close security ties with Israel...
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On 30 July Moroccan state news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) gleefully reproduced a letter in which President Emmanuel Macron told Moroccan King Mohammed VI (M6) that ‘autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework within which this issue must be resolved' and was ‘the only basis for reaching an agreement' on the former Spanish colony...
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The war in Gaza has prompted a wave of heavily-policed protests against King Mohammed VI's diplomatic recognition of Israel (AC Vol 65 No 2 Royalty shows signs of stress)...
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