The founder of La France insoumise is expected in the kingdom from Wednesday for a six-day tour. The aim: to renew dialogue with the Moroccan left. But a crisis hangs over this trip between Paris and Rabat.
"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 Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier from Wednesday 4 October to Monday 9 October. This visit, planned for "more than a year", will allow the former presidential candidate to get out of Paris, according to Nabil Benabdellah, secretary-general of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), while his relative, the deputy Sophia Chikirou , is at the heart of several press articles and a judicial investigation concerning in particular allegations 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 struck on 8 September and left more than 3,000 dead. In the village of Amizmiz, at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains, he is due to attend the resumption of classes in tents and interact with residents, local officials and representatives of the association.
"What he's primarily interested in is understanding how mutual aid is created and how populations self-organize to participate in reconstruction," says Farida Amrani, LFI's Essonne representative and vice president of the France-Morocco Friendship Group. He forms, with Nabil Benabdellah and Mohammed Abdi, a former activist of the French Socialist Party who became an adviser to Morocco's investment minister, the trio that prepared the way for the "rebel" leader.
Return to the homeland
Mr Mélenchon's tour is due to continue on Thursday in Casablanca, where a conference on his latest book, Doing Better! Towards a Civil Revolution, during which he will discuss cooperation between Mediterranean countries, particularly in the field of water. The next day, he is scheduled to meet elected officials and the Mayor of Marrakech in Rabat. An official interview with Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch "may also be on the agenda", hopes Nabil Benabdellah.
On Sunday and Monday, Mr Mélenchon is finally due to leave for Tangier, where he was born in 1951 and lived until he was 11. But this part of his stay is "strictly private", his relatives note.
The founder of La France insoumise is expected in the kingdom from Wednesday for a six-day tour. The aim: to renew dialogue with the Moroccan left. But a crisis hangs over this trip between Paris and Rabat.
"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 Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier from Wednesday 4 October to Monday 9 October. This visit, planned for "more than a year", will allow the former presidential candidate to get out of Paris, according to Nabil Benabdellah, secretary-general of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), while his relative, the deputy Sophia Chikirou , is at the heart of several press articles and a judicial investigation concerning in particular allegations of "aggravated fraud".
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On Wednesday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is expected to travel to the province of Al-Haouz, south of Marrakech, particularly affected by the earthquake that struck on 8 September and left more than 3,000 dead. In the village of Amizmiz, at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains, he is due to attend the resumption of classes in tents and interact with residents, local officials and representatives of the association.
"What he's primarily interested in is understanding how mutual aid is created and how populations self-organize to participate in reconstruction," says Farida Amrani, LFI's Essonne representative and vice president of the France-Morocco Friendship Group. He forms, with Nabil Benabdellah and Mohammed Abdi, a former activist of the French Socialist Party who became an adviser to Morocco's investment minister, the trio that prepared the way for the "rebel" leader.
Return to the homeland
Mr Mélenchon's tour is due to continue on Thursday in Casablanca, where a conference on his latest book, Doing Better! Towards a Civil Revolution, during which he will discuss cooperation between Mediterranean countries, particularly in the field of water. The next day, he is scheduled to meet elected officials and the Mayor of Marrakech in Rabat. An official interview with Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch "may also be on the agenda", hopes Nabil Benabdellah.
On Sunday and Monday, Mr Mélenchon is finally due to leave for Tangier, where he was born in 1951 and lived until he was 11. But this part of his stay is "strictly private", his relatives note.
"Neither he nor I have the vocation to replace our officials," says Nabil Benabdellah. He will not comment on the subject and I don't expect him to appear on this record. But I am aware that there are many MPs in Nupes [an alliance of left-wing parties in France], especially in the Communist Party and the Greens, who support the Polisario Front. "
Behind the arrival of the LFI founder in Morocco is another unknown: when will Emmanuel Macron visit Morocco for the first time? Ironically, François Hollande's event in April 2013 occurred a few weeks after a visit to Rabat by... Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then leader of the Left Party. Six years after his election, the President of the Republic is still waiting his turn.
Le Monde/Alexandre Aublanc/RoZ
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