Morocco: February 20 Movement Restarts Weekly Protests

On Sunday Morocco saw 3,000 demonstrators in Casablanca, and as many as 2,000 called for regime change on the streets of Tangier. These events marked the pro-democracy February 20th Movement’s resumption of its weekly Sunday protests, which had drawn much larger groups at the beginning of the summer, when public awareness centered on the constitutional referendum. The passage of the referendum meant “the Constitution has been amended to give more powers to the prime minister and Parliament.” Sunday’s marches featured protesters donning masks in order to imitate the King and a few of his closest advisers, chanting “Head of the army, it’s too much, head of the religion, it’s too much.”

Amid restarted protests, the Unified Socialist Party has announced it will boycott the November 25 parliamentary elections. Democracy Digest also reported that “Morocco appears set to join the Gulf Cooperation Council,” which “has emerged as the cornerstone of the counter-revolution against the democratic thrust of the Arab Spring.”