In the picture
Protest in front of the Parliament in Rabat, in October 2025 [Mounir Neddi]
The figure of the king of Morocco has historically been respected by Moroccans, but recent protests risk damaging the reputation of both the king and the country. Gen-Z 212 is a Moroccan grassroots movement founded by young people—in particular, university students and unemployed graduates of Generation Z—that was born in early September 2025 to protest against the Moroccan government. The movement, which took its name from Morocco's international country dialing code (+212), was born as part of a wave of similar groups mushrooming in other parts of the world in a movement that peaked in October 2025 and died out in December of the same year.
All these youth entities emerged in different countries, some of which have been more successful than others, hold some shared views. In the first place, their members mostly belong to the so-called Generation Z, which encompasses the cohorts born between 1997 and 2012; hence, they are digital natives. Most of them, too, are students who have received secondary (high school) or higher education (university). This fact is particularly relevant because it attests, more than ever before, to the impact of educational institutions in shaping Gen-Zers' mentality both towards democratic liberal ideals and towards expectations of the government observing the key principles in these ideals. Likewise, like most other similar movements, Gen-Z 212 was created online, mainly by students who coordinated anonymously through platforms such as 'Discord'.
Remarkably, the protesters managed to organize in a very efficient way without any leader or external actor influencing them; in fact, Gen-Z 212 was created as a horizontal movement. The grievances that drove them to protest were caused by a spiral of frustrations related to the low quality of public services, the high youth unemployment rate in Morocco, and disappointment with the rampant corruption of the government, in addition to levels of poverty and inequality, especially in rural areas.
The trigger cause of the protests was the outrageous death of eight women due to the lack of medical assistance and medical materials following cesarean sections in a public hospital in Agadir during mid-September 2025. This was the last straw in the accumulated frustration. The main charge leveled against the government was that of allocating wrong priorities to public funds; the demonstrators demanded more attention to public services rather than to ambitious infrastructure projects, in particular the construction of the five new stadiums for the FIFA World Cup 2030 worth $20 billion.
The protesters demanded that Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch be held accountable to King Mohammed VI who, under Article 47 of the Constitution, has the power to remove the head of government. Surprisingly, Gen-Z 212 actually had faith in the king's support for their cause, even though they were aware of the illiberal regime that rules over the country, and demanded his support, which begs the question of why the protesters considered that King Mohammed VI was on their side.
Unlike Spain and England, where the monarch has mainly ceremonial powers, in those countries it is not useful to appeal to this figure to resolve internal political issues, while in Morocco, the monarch has extensive political power. It is not surprising that Generation Z appeals to him. It shows that the protest was not against the regime or the constitutional monarchy—at least not openly in order to try to prosper—but against the poor management of the country's political affairs.
Morocco operates nominally as a constitutional monarchy, but it is, in reality, an executive one led by King Mohammed VI, who is the Head of State. Remarkably, his legitimacy has two natures: traditional and legal-rational. The traditional legitimacy stems from the king's role as the religious leader of Morocco—Commander of the Faithful is one of his titles—since the Alaouite dynasty was founded in the 17th century, tracing its origins back to the Prophet himself (571-632).
Following the Arab Spring in 2011, however, the king was under pressure to amend the Constitution to give up and yield some of his powers to the government, which was approved by referendum. With this strategic political move, he asserted his legal control over the country. At the same time, he maintained his traditional, religious, and cultural power.
The Makhzen is the shadow government that runs the country with the king; essentially, it is a network of co-optation composed of members of the army, landowners, the administrative elite, tax collectors, and the court. It is the lobby behind the king; the Makhzen controls the economic apparatus of the state and influences the king's decisions. In fact, the Makhzen holds more power than elected officials and indirectly controls foreign aid and mega-projects, among other things.
The king and the Makhzen reciprocally benefit from their relationship because they need each other to govern; hence, the king backs the interests of the Makhzen to maintain his power and the Makhzen uses the king by using the staff surrounding the monarch and his dual traditional and legal legitimacy as king to defend their interests. King Mohammed VI has always been more secretive than the previous king, Hassan II; he knows how to gauge his power and when to make concessions through reforms to appease the population while defending the interests of the Makhzen to assert his power.
To this day, King Mohammed is still viewed positively by the population because he implemented major reforms for women and has been tolerant toward ethnic minorities. Therefore, the protesters expected that he would be open to granting further reforms.
The personality cult built around the monarch still plays a key factor and is the reason why the king is largely accepted by the people as the legitimate ruler. At the beginning, it seemed that King Mohammed VI was going to address the protesters in the royal speech on October 10, 2025. The rioters seemed to have faith in the king and thought that he would have listened to their requests. However, the speech was a major disappointment to their expectations since it omitted the riots and offered no concrete proposals or solutions to the issues put forward by Gen-Z 212. Furthermore, in the following days, the police cracked down on the protests and arrested over 2,400 people.
The repression of the movement certainly hurt the reputation of both the king and the country, whose image and economy have been tarnished by the protests. Nonetheless, Gen-Z 212 has not found much echo in Europe, and the Moroccan government is trying to sweep the protest under the carpet while international actors turn a blind eye to the illiberal regime and continue to foster their businesses using the momentum of Morocco's economic boom. The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations went ahead in Morocco despite the protests and the government reaction.