Rabat, Morocco – A new wave of radical left-wing parties in Morocco is growing, with emerging groups offering fresh political alternatives to the main socialist party, which is in a state of decline.
The rise of the far left comes after a dramatic fall in electoral support for the Socialist Union of Popular Forces Party (USFP), the country’s main leftist party and a genuine opposition force in the 1970s and ’80s, and amid the extreme fragmentation of Morocco’s left, exacerbated by ideological differences and diverse stances on issues such as the constitution, monarchy, elections, and social and economic reforms.
The USFP used to pride itself on being the party of the educated and the urban. Its electoral base is now restricted to districts with high rates of illiteracy.
The beginning of the fall started when USFP decided to join subsequent coalition governments between 2002 and 2011, but failed to play a substantial role.
The other leftist party, the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), has been part of several coalitions, including the outgoing government led by the Islamic PJD party, despite fundamental ideological differences. PPS is now seen as an establishment party and is no longer considered to represent the ideals of the left.
According to Driss Maghraoui, associate professor of history and international relations at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, the logic of leftist parties is to change the political system from within. But for many Moroccan socialists, this was not the case.
“Ultimately [the USFP] and the PPS ended up changing themselves but not changing the system, hence losing their legitimacy,” Maghraoui told Al Jazeera.
Ali Sedjari, UNESCO human rights chair and professor of juridical science at Mohammed V University in Rabat, said the decline of the left is a global phenomenon and blames globalisation for the weakening of socialist movements.
“Globalisation has diffused the global [socialist] movement,” Sedjari told Al Jazeera, “and public politics today doesn’t divide itself into conservative and socialist. Public politics has no ideological colour.”
Source: The fall and the rise of Morocco’s left – News from Al Jazeera
