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Rabat – Abdelilah Benkirane, Leader of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) and former Head of Government, said that his party is facing its most difficult situation ever and has urged the party to remember the reasons why it was established and its main tasks.
During a PJD meeting held on July 1, Benkirane revealed that he had proposed the idea of leaving the party and quitting politics altogether, however, members of the PJD and of the wider Moroccan society expressed a strong desire that he stay in his position.
The party leader continued that while current circumstances in both the PJD and Morocco had imposed silence on him, he was silent because of his own free will, noting: “speaking can be hard sometimes.”
Benkirane added that the PJD party should find a way to get out of its current dilemma, saying that “the party should go back to its roots: who we are, what we want and what should be done.”
He said that he is not thinking about the details, but instead about the fundamentals that could help his party to overcome this “most difficult test”.
In June, Mohamed Khoiyi El Khamlichi, a PJD member of Parliament, posted an open letter to Benkirane on Facebook urging him to not retire from politics and to continue speaking on the country’s current issues.
“[Benkirane] is a national leader who enjoys the respect of a large base of Moroccan citizens which led to hundreds of thousands of Moroccan voters to go to the polls in two key elections to endorse his reforms,” said El Khamlichi.
Moroccan media reported earlier this week that notable PJD members, including Benkirane and Saadeddine El Othmani, the current Head of Government, had a heated debate during a meeting on June 29.
The meeting was the first held by the party in two and half months, a period during which Benkirane has remained noticeably silent regarding developments following his dismissal by King Mohammed VI as appointed head of government in March, and his replacement by El Othmani.
During the meeting, Benkirane reiterated his previous criticism of the government’s management of the Rif crisis, where a heavy security presence had been used to deal with protests. 93 protesters of Hirak [protest movement], are being prosecuted on serious charges of threatening the country’s security and territorial integrity by advocating for separatism.
Back in early June, Benkirane criticized the government for accusing Rif protesters of separatism, calling it a “serious mistake.” The statement signaled a divergence inside the party that is leading the government.
Since the death of fish vendor Mouhcine Fikri who was crushed to death in a garbage truck on October 28, the Rif region in northern Morocco has witnessed a wave of protests.
