Moroccan press review for January 5

Rabat, January 5, 2012

The composition of the new government, the debate stirred by the constitutionality of the holding the new cabinet meeting before obtaining the parliament’s confidence, and the rows in the Independence Party (PI) over the ministers presented by the party’s Secretary General made the focus of Thursday’s Dailies.

A political government with a technocratic aspect, comments Assabah on the new cabinet members, noting that eight of the 31 new ministers already served in the outgoing government.

Al Ittihad Al Ichriraki criticizes the new government for the under representativeness of women as the new cabinet includes only one women (Bassima Hakkaoui, Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development).

Al Ahdath Al Maghribia writes that leaders of the USFP, one of the main opposition parties, would rather postpone their assessment until the government declaration is delivered.

The constitutionality of the new cabinet meeting was also largely covered. Al Massae and Al Khabar write that the new Head of Government will chair today the first cabinet meeting before obtaining the confidence of the parliament.

From another perspective, Aujourd’hui le Maroc writes that Benkirane’s government will hold the first cabinet meeting that will be devoted to examining the long-awaited for government declaration.

Most papers also point to the turmoil in the PI. Al Khabar writes that 23 MPs of the PI threaten to vote against the new government pending the holding of an extraordinary assembly of the party for the deposition of current Secretary General Abbas El Fassi.

Al Khabar reports that Independence Party MPs disapprove that Youssef Amrani, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Fouad Douiri, Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment were appointed under the umbrella of the Party.

In the same vein, Akhbar Al Yaoum Al Maghribia quotes Adellah Bekkali, one of the PI leaders, as saying that the proposed ministers by the party was dictated by family ties and nepotism.