Continued debates over composition of Morocco's new government
2007-10-07
Moroccan parties involved in the formation of the country's new government continue to discuss proposed structuring and the allocation of ministerial portfolios.
By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 05/10/07
 [Getty Images] El Fassi is making his decisions in consultation with King Mohammed VI. |
Differences between Morocco's new prime minister, Abbas El Fassi, and the majority parties have delayed the new government's formation. Although local media spoke of "difficulties" and "crisis" in reaching consensus, party leaders have played down the difficulty of the negotiations.
Speaking with Magharebia, Abdelhamid El Khalili, member of the executive office of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), denied the existence of a "crisis".
"We only have some remarks about the merger of some ministries and the transformation of some other ministries into state secretariats," he said. "This is in addition to some other remarks about the specializations of some ministries."
According to the structure El Fassi announced on September 30th, the new government will consist of 25 to 29 ministers, in comparison to the outgoing 34-member cabinet. Istiqlal will receive six ministerial posts, the RNI, Popular Movement (MP) and the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) will receive four each, while the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) will have two.
El Khalili called for the application of a "democratic methodology" in assigning ministries. He said that although the party that took first place in the elections should hold the prime minister position and some other important ministries, the party that came in second should choose ministries that match the ranking it has won.
PPS Secretary-General Ismail Alaoui also said there were no difficulties, only "remarks about the structure". In an interview with Magharebia, he said "we consider the transformation of the Ministry of Health into a state secretariat to be a gross mistake. However, I consider that there is justice in the distribution of the ministry portfolios."
Mohamed Darif, a Moroccan political science professor at the Faculty of Law in Casablanca, said that majority parties know the king has the "first and final word" in devising the structure of the new government.
"Perhaps the only matter that constitutes differences is the identity of the ministers proposed by each party," he said. "I consider that to be a very minor thing, as the prime minister-designate proposes the list of ministers' names to the King and the latter has the right to either accept or reject these names." Darif added that while party leaders certainly prefer some names over others, the Royal Palace has its own considerations concerning the individuals who are suitable to hold ministerial portfolios.
With the new Parliament scheduled to begin work on October 12th, "The Prime Minister is not constitutionally bound to form the government before the parliament's opening session," Darif said, noting that former Prime Minister Abderrahman al-Youssoufi's consultations lasted nearly 40 days.
According to independent al-Ahdath al-Maghribya, the Royal Palace notified Abbas El Fassi that "no change is to be introduced into the structure that has been endorsed by his Majesty the King and that no increase is to take place in ministry portfolios." El Fassi promised majority leaders last week that he would discuss the matter with the Palace.
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الغيواني الاصيل Posted 2007-10-07
To say the truth, Abbas El Fassi will be of no good for Morocco, he succeeded in lying and robbing 30 thousand Moroccan young people through the company Najat in which he was the only survivor and in which 30 thousand Moroccan young people fell, we've not forgotten this scandal which happened when he was a minister.
citoyendumaroc Posted 2007-10-08
In effect, I think that the issue of health is responsible for many of our problems and that the one little state secretariat cannot change this. In our opinion, such an affair would be a terrible catastrophe. Former Minister of Health Abdelouahed el Fassi should get involved and dissuade Abbas from these types of resolutions. As for restricting the assigned positions of each party, in my opinion, there is no real problem necessitating this. If the plan is to transform certain ministers into secretaries of state or top management, then what is the reason behind such an initiative? Is it only to diminish the number of ministers sitting in the councils or was it supposed to be to diminish the cost of salaries? Morocco is going through some very large undertakings, each deserving to have someone in charge. In France, Françoise Fillon definitely tried to reduce the number of salary packages and then found it necessary to increase the number of state secretariats with the addition of 8 more. As for the list of ministries, may good grace save us from having people who hold several posts at the same time: all the older people in the ministries are nearing retirement and the incapable, incompetent ones continue to dream of Hassan’s era.
أحمد Posted 2007-10-08
Don't ask who the minister is, but about the limited powers attributed to the minister, as everyone in Morocco is in the grip of the king.
مواطن Posted 2007-10-09
The main concern of the citizen in general is the formation of a government whose priorities are to take care of the citizens in their daily life, including medical care, education and other requirements of life and work hard to fight poverty and the high cost of living which weighs heavily on a wide category of the citizens with low-income namely small employees who have no power, and we've not heard for a long time anyone defending this category.
molahid Posted 2007-10-11
Mr Abbas is propagating an experiment: The experiment was on a sample of 30,000 people, and now he is going to spread it over 30,000,000 Moroccan people. It is the experiment of Najat- I mean the scandal of Najat.
مواطن من طنجة Posted 2007-10-11
In a previous topic, I referred to the expectations of the Moroccan citizen of the coming Moroccan government after its formation (in one word fighting poverty). Everyone has heard about the events which happened because of that in some cities, they were followed by very limited moves to control prices in some cases. But the citizen in Tangier didn't notice any move by local authorities to control prices or publish them. And this causes an increasing resentment of most people in this city. There's just once concern that this silence precedes the storm. Therefore, the officials should make the first step or take the initiative to punish the offenders and monopolists and impose on sellers to publish the prices namely in popular streets where poor families live.
محمد Posted 2007-10-12
Education in our dear country is agonizing. The officials in the field are aware of it, from the directors to the minister. Massive absences whether of the teachers or students. In the schoolyard, students wear walkmans, and mobile phones with noisy music next to his friend. And at home a digital device and internet is awaiting him, in addition to the general environment in the school. Passing is ensured whether by cheating or by plotting between the absent teacher and the student in continuous exams.
مواطن من طنجة Posted 2007-10-12
My reading of one of the articles published on this site about the public health sector, this topic pushed me to write about the deductions from the wages of employees without exception (medical coverage and medical insurance) in order to fill the funds of the “Mutuelle générale du personnel des administrations publiques” (MGPAP). But the small employees know nothing about this last deduction, ignore its motives as long as they don’t profit in anyway of it and they haven’t received any clarification about the topic. Here I speak in my quality of public servant in the city of Tangier, namely the public servants in the Administrative Annexes who suffer of all types of oppression as there are some who have been waiting for over five years to benefit materially from their promotion even if they have received the ministerial decision on the issue. All I can add is ‘God suffices us, God is the best mandate'
inos Posted 2007-10-16
Abbas El Fassi does nothing for Morocco. Many Moroccans have died because of him.
مواطن من طنجة Posted 2007-10-17
Everyone calls for the reform of the public service while others complain of the deterioration in quality and efficiency in the services offered to citizens. No one of the citizens or officials inquire about the causes of that. The reason is simply non-interest in the human element, i.e. the simple public servant, who does all office work and other works; who always finds himself lost between the requirements of daily life and his lamentable financial situation which doesn’t allow him even to ensure the requirements of the daily life without talking about continuing his training and development his knowledge. Here I address one question to the official who put hurdles in front of the holders of technical diplomas who managed to attend evening courses in different subjects in the Institute of Vocational Training and Promotion of Work in spite of the material difficulties which were facing them (650 dirhams a month for three years in addition of the registration and insurance fees instead of 250 dirhams a month in order to get a technician diploma of the fourth category). Many of these technicians who have fought and struggled in order to study and catch up with the development and upgrade the level of the Moroccan administration are still expecting officials to retract their decision to freeze their salaries which are conferred by their diplomas. By the way, they do their job with devotion and loyalty and expect of you to adjust their administrative situation and review your decisions.
fatima Posted 2007-10-31
My brothers, there's nothing satisfactory, may God have mercy on us, that's all.
م.أ من داخل ميناء طنجة Posted 2007-12-30
The port of Tangier, how awful is the port of Tangier. There are border police who pledged on themselves to amass money and wealth; they act as if they were inside commercial stores, namely those in charge of stamping the passports on board vessels and outside. They make networks of smuggling human beings illegally, by allowing those who pay to go to other side of the sea without facing the dangers of waves; some of them also work on drug smuggling or assist in that; these are well-known and they were never subject to transfers because they pay to higher security sides significant amounts of money in order to remain in the port and not transfer them to other places so that they continue amassing wealth. If you search their properties, you will find that they have luxury houses and cars and you will be surprised at the level of prosperity in which they live.
boudani youssef Posted 2008-01-08
Differences between the new Moroccan prime minister Abbas El Fassi and the majority parties have led to the postponement of the formation of the government. While local papers talked about "difficulties" and a "crisis", party leaders downplayed the difficulty of negotiations.
houda Posted 2008-01-08
I want to say that Morocco is good, long live Morocco.
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