Morocco’s Makhzen Put to Test by Disasters: Repression, Coercive Lawmaking and Governance Failure Fuel Public Anger

In disaster-stricken regions long excluded from investment priorities and protective planning, the fragility of infrastructure has laid bare the failure of public policies incapable of anticipating climate change or the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Instead of undertaking a thorough revision of flood-prevention strategies, enforcing strict urban planning standards, and updating territorial development policies, the authorities persist in a strategy of political fire-fighting, addressing symptoms while deliberately ignoring structural causes.

More alarming still is the repressive turn taken in post-disaster management in certain areas. Homes have been demolished during the winter season without the completion of legally required procedures, without fair compensation, and without the provision of dignified alternatives for affected families. Such practices reflect not only a grave absence of human consideration, but also a direct assault on the rule of law, transforming victims into suspects and citizens into expendable burdens under the pretexts of “order” and “safety”.

On the economic front, these disasters have coincided with runaway prices and the near-total absence of effective oversight over speculators and crisis profiteers. Markets have been left at the mercy of monopolistic practices, while farmers face crop losses and livestock deaths with inadequate support and no clear compensation strategy. Meanwhile, the government has failed to activate disaster insurance mechanisms, despite the existence of a legal framework that remains largely dormant.

Politically and legislatively, social tension continues to mount as the government pushes through critical laws by sheer numerical majority, bypassing genuine dialogue with stakeholders and disregarding the role of parliament and the observations of governance institutions. Laws imposed by force rather than consensus have produced texts riddled with flaws, paving the way for further crises. The draft law regulating the legal profession stands as a glaring example, having triggered an unprecedented confrontation with a body that should serve as a cornerstone of justice.

This unilateral approach—marked by the marginalisation of social actors, the sidelining of opposition voices, and the systematic undermining of parliamentary oversight—reveals a profound deficit in democratic vision. It confirms that decision-making is driven less by the public interest than by narrow considerations, amid glaring conflicts of interest and chronic misgovernance.

Ultimately, Morocco today is not merely facing a flood crisis or a passing legislative dispute. It is grappling with a comprehensive crisis of trust between society and the Makhzen authorities. A crisis fuelled by failed policies, authoritarian management, and a blocked social horizon. As long as this trajectory persists, public anger will remain volatile and prone to eruption, unless the door is opened to genuine change—one grounded in accountability, respect for the law, and meaningful citizen participation, rather than the treatment of citizens as marginal figures in a power equation that has lost its compass.