Rabat- Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani says that he has initiated talks with the two parties in his coalition to suggest replacements of ministers sacked by King Mohammed VI earlier in October.
El Othmani told his party’s online mouthpiece that he is in talks with the Progress and Socialism Party (PPS) and the Popular Movement (MP) to find ministers to substitute the four ministers dismissed on October 24 based on a report on the delay of the “Al Hoceima Manarat Al Motawasit” development projects in the north.
The leading member of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) said that he talked with the heads of PPS and MP and asked them to “suggest names” to assume the vacant ministerial positions.
The sacked ministers included PPS’s leader, Mohamed Nabil Benabdellah, his co-party member and former minister of health El Houssaine El Ouardi, as well as MP’s former minister of education, Mohamed Hassad, who was in charge of the minister of interior in the previous government, and Larbi Bencheikh, secretary of atate in charge of vocational training.
A release by the royal palace indicated that the monarch was unhappy with the record of four other ministers, who served in the previous government and who also belong to PPS and MP.
As El Othmani noted, PPS’s Central Committee, referred to as the party’s parliament, is set to convene on November 4 to discuss the royal decision, which rocked the left-wing party that has been PJD’s closest ally for the last six years.
Media reports speculated that PPS will also discuss the possibility of pulling out of the government coalition.
Talks about a potential reintegration of the Istiqlal Party (PI) into the government coalition instead of PPS and MP have also surfaced since the surprise sackings.
Istiqlal was a member of the subsequent Moroccan government coalitions from 1998 to 2013 before withdrawing from the coalition then led by PJD’s chief, Abdelilah Benkirane.
As pulling out from the government turned out to cost the party parliamentary seats in the general elections of October 2016, Istiqlal is now eying a return to what it sees as its natural place in government.
Istiqlal seems close to doing so now that Chabat is no longer leader of the party. The former controversial party was rejected by PJD’s other allies in government.
