Morocco: Thousands of chanting, flag-waving Moroccans protested in a northern city on Friday, keeping up pressure on authorities a week after a fishmonger was crushed to death in a garbage truck in a confrontation with police.
The death of Muhsin Fikri has prompted a week of street protests in some of the biggest and longest challenges to authority in the country since the 2011 Arab Spring.
Thousands waved candles, flags in the local Amazigh language and banners used by the resistance against Spanish and French colonisation, while chanting slogans against the government.
Five years after the pro-democracy rallies shook Morocco, this week’s unrest has been a reminder of the frustrations the monarchy managed to tame in the past with limited constitutional reforms, heavy welfare spending and tough security.
Friday’s evening funeral followed by the demonstration was the latest in a series of rallies that started a week ago, packing a downtown square of Al Huseema, where many see Fikri as a symbol of abuses by officials, corruption and injustice.
Morocco, a Western partner in the war against Islamist militancy, presents itself as a model of stability and gradual reform since 2011 in a region where extremism and political turmoil have become rampant.
Public anger echoes Tunisia’s own 2011 uprising when a street vendor set himself on fire over police abuses and triggered a revolt that swept Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali from power and started the Arab Spring.
Unlike Tunisia, though, Morocco’s protests and those in 2011 never directly challenged the deep-rooted monarchy, the Muslim world’s longest-serving dynasty. Instead, they called for reforms and an end to official abuses.
This week’s protests have been peaceful and police have kept a distance in a country where political protests are rare and usually heavily policed.
