A March in Barcelona by the committee for resistance, freedom and justice of the people of the Rif. Picture by Paco Freire / Sopa Images/Zuma Press/PA Images. All rights reserved. Many European politicians consider Morocco a stable and unproblematic country in an otherwise unpredictable region. Take the case of Germany, where the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, aims to classify all the states of the Maghreb as “secure countries of origin”. Jens Spahn, now Federal Minister of Health, has always shared this view and bluntly justified it a few months ago by saying that many Europeans went on holiday in countries like Morocco, “so these must be safe countries”. The fact that this attractive tourism destination is now even applying to host the FIFA World Cup 2026, also fits within this picture. But this is at most half the truth.
In Morocco, last year was marked by the largest social protests since the so-called "Arab Spring". Protesters face massive repression, as evidenced by the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators and the persecution and intimidation of critical journalists and lawyers. The focal points lie in the neglected rural periphery, especially in the Rif, the north of the country.
Meanwhile, a transnational solidarity movement is forming within the Moroccan diaspora across the Mediterranean, and several members of the European Parliament are supporting their demands. These newly emerging networks not only bring together actors in very different locations, they also associate the protest experiences of 2011 with the memory of colonial history.
