“It’s been ten years since Jean-Luc came to Morocco,” repeat those close to the founder of La France insoumise (LFI), who is due to tour, from Wednesday October 4 to Monday October 9, to Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier. This visit scheduled “for more than a year”, according to Nabil Benabdellah, secretary general of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), will allow the former presidential candidate to move away from Paris while one of his relatives, the MP Sophia Chikirou, is at the heart of several press articles and a judicial investigation relating in particular to suspicions of “aggravated fraud”.
On Wednesday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is expected to travel to the province of Al-Haouz, south of Marrakech, particularly affected by the earthquake that occurred on September 8, which left more than 3,000 dead. In the commune of Amizmiz, at the foot of the High Atlas, he is supposed to attend the resumption of classes in tents and interact with residents, local officials and representatives of associations.
“What interests him above all is to understand how mutual aid is created and how populations self-organize to participate in reconstruction,” explains Farida Amrani, LFI deputy for Essonne and vice-president of the France-Morocco friendship group. The latter forms, with Nabil Benabdellah and Mohammed Abdi, a former activist of the French Socialist Party who became advisor to the Moroccan Minister of Investment, the trio who prepared the trip of the rebellious leader.
Return to homeland
Mr. Mélenchon’s tour is scheduled to continue Thursday in Casablanca, where a conference is being held on his latest book, Do Better! Towards the Citizen’s Revolution, during which he will discuss the cooperation of Mediterranean countries, particularly in the area of ??water. A meeting is planned in Rabat the next day with elected officials and the mayor of Marrakech. An official interview with the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, will “perhaps also be on the agenda”, indicates Nabil Benabdellah.
On Sunday and Monday, Mr. Mélenchon should finally go to Tangier, where he was born in 1951 and lived until he was 11. But this part of the stay is “strictly private”, note those close to him.
Even if “the fight against the cooling of diplomatic relations between France and Morocco” is one of the official objectives of the visit, Mr. Mélenchon’s entourage insists on evacuating its political significance, evoking instead a stay marked by “the spirit of sharing” and the “affective” nature of this return to his native country. “Jean-Luc comes to listen and learn,” says Farida Amrani. “He’s not coming to give lessons,” slips his press officer. A displayed modesty which contrasts with the reproach of “paternalism” addressed to President Emmanuel Macron by a number of observers in Morocco.
Asked about the dispute between Paris and Rabat on Sunday on LCI, the rebellious leader warned: “I do not intend to take responsibility for the actions of Mr. Macron. » Mr. Mélenchon enjoys a rather positive perception in Morocco due to his ties to the country and his laudatory remarks towards Moroccans, praising their “strength” after the earthquake or welcoming, as in April 2020, “ the performance” of the kingdom “in its plan to fight Covid-19”. During the first round of the French presidential election, in April 2022, he came well ahead in the votes cast by the approximately 17,000 French people in Morocco who voted (out of 53,000 registered).
The question of Western Sahara
But it is on an issue that poisons Franco-Moroccan relations that Mr. Mélenchon is expected: Western Sahara. “Will he break his party’s support for the Polisario Front? », headlined Telquel magazine on September 29, recalling the participation, in October 2019, of Mathilde Panot, then vice-president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, in a demonstration of the Sahrawi independence movement in Paris. Asked to those close to him, the question arouses a certain embarrassment. “Jean-Luc sat in the European Parliament, he has a position on this issue,” underlines Farida Armani, without further details.
In May, during his trip to the kingdom, Eric Ciotti, the president of the Republicans, declared that “the sovereignty of Morocco is indisputable” in Western Sahara. Will Mr. Mélenchon do the same? “We will probably talk about the crisis between Morocco and France, but the position of Mr. Mélenchon or his party is not central. It is that of the French government and the head of state that matters,” observes Mohamed Zidouh, member of the national council of the Istiqlal party and president of the Morocco-France friendship group in the House of Advisors.
“Neither he nor I have the vocation to replace our officials,” says Nabil Benabdellah. He will not make a statement on this subject and I do not expect him to appear on this record. But I am aware that within the Nupes [the alliance of left-wing parties in France], especially in the Communist Party and the Greens, there are many deputies who support the Polisario Front. »
Behind the visit to Morocco of the founder of LFI there is another unknown: when will Emmanuel Macron make his first state visit to Morocco? Ironically, that of François Hollande, in April 2013, took place a few weeks after the visit to Rabat of… Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then leader of the Left Party. Six years after being elected, the President of the Republic is still waiting for his turn.
