{"id":522,"date":"2026-10-09T21:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=522"},"modified":"2026-10-09T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:38:08","slug":"moroccos-opposition-says-royal-speech-will-become-test-for-incoming-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"Morocco\u2019s opposition says royal speech will become test for incoming government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Morocco\u2019s parliamentary opposition said Friday it would use King Mohammed VI\u2019s opening address to the new legislature as a reference point for scrutinizing the incoming government, focusing particularly on regionalization, administrative reform, youth policy and national sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>The comments came after the King opened the 12th Legislature with a call for the next political cycle to become a \u201creal turning point,\u201d while warning that further delays in transferring powers and resources from Rabat to the regions were unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Justice and Development Party MP Amina Maelainine said the speech had identified issues requiring action from both the majority and opposition, pointing to administrative deconcentration as an unfinished reform despite progress made so far.<\/p>\n<p>She linked that agenda to advanced regionalization and argued that stronger regional institutions would also matter for Morocco\u2019s longer-term political objectives in the southern provinces.<\/p>\n<p>The PJD entered the new legislature having formally decided to remain in opposition after winning 54 seats in the Sept. 23 election.<\/p>\n<p>Maelainine also highlighted the King\u2019s call to strengthen Morocco\u2019s strategic reserves amid environmental, geopolitical and supply-chain uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Left Alliance MP Mahmoud Benjelloun said his bloc would put \u201cnational sovereignty first,\u201d citing the speech\u2019s discussion of Morocco\u2019s relationship with Spain as well as the need to rethink relations between the central state and the regions.<\/p>\n<p>His colleague Nabila Jalal focused on territorial inequality and youth, arguing that public policy should respond more directly to differences between regions and to the problems facing younger Moroccans.<\/p>\n<p>PJD MP Abdelssamad Haiker said the party would use the speech as a reference for both parliamentary oversight and legislative initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The immediate test, opposition MPs said, will be the incoming government\u2019s program: whether the priorities raised Friday are translated into specific commitments, budgets and public policies rather than remaining broad political objectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morocco\u2019s parliamentary opposition said Friday it would use King Mohammed VI\u2019s opening address to the new legislature as a reference point for scrutinizing the incoming government, focusing particularly on regionalization, administrative reform, youth policy and national sovereignty. The comments came after the King opened the 12th Legislature with a call for the next political cycle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","category-morocco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}