Gen Z 212 Protests: What Morocco's Youth Want? | EXCLUSIVE Interview with Africa Expert Dr. Mishra - video Dailymotion

Asianet News English

In this exclusive edition of Asianet News' 'In Focus', Dr. Abhishek Mishra from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis breaks down the causes and implications of the Gen Z 212 protests sweeping Morocco since late September 2025. These youth-led demonstrations demand better healthcare and education funding amidst widespread frustration over government spending on international sports infrastructure. Discover what’s driving this decentralized movement, the role of social media in mobilization, and how Morocco’s constitutional monarchy shapes responses.&nbsp;

Transcript

00:00in our special series called in focus where we talk to experts regarding our most important

00:19national and international developments joining me today is Dr Abhishek Mishra he is an associate

00:25fellow with the Manohar Parikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis his research involves

00:31developments in Africa and prior to that he was working with ORF think tank in New Delhi and he's

00:39joining us today to speak about what is behind the Moroccan 2-1-2 Zainzi protests so why don't we

00:46start Dr Mishra by you informing our audiences what is really behind these protests what are the

00:53aggravances what are some of the important systemic issues Zainzi protesters are you know talking about

01:00yes thank you for having me so the trigger point for this current ongoing protest it started in

01:09mid-September this year when Moroccan government they unveiled a new soccer stadium which was to hold

01:18post the African Cup of Nations later this year the mole of delay of the last soccer stadium which

01:25reportedly it costs around 75 million dollars now simultaneously as the government was uh

01:34uh was erecting this stadium uh there were several reports from different parts in Morocco that due to

01:42uh patients were dying in hospitals public hospitals due to medical negligence so that again brought back

01:50amongst the Moroccan population or brought back several questions about what exactly are the developmental

01:57priorities of Morocco why is Morocco following uh so-called infrastructure uh driven foreign policy rather than

02:11looking at their own domestic issues so on 27th September uh Gen Z primarily using the hashtag uh 2-1-2 is

02:22basically uh Morocco's uh international country code uh they expressed their in a first initially in a

02:30peaceful manner they expressed frustration over the degrading education as well as uh health services

02:37uh and they brought out the anomaly where uh the government is building all these uh state-of-the-art uh

02:44infrastructure uh but at the same time they are not uh looking to uh rectify these uh domestic uh

02:52priorities now if you have to realize that in Morocco youth they make up one third of the Moroccan entire

03:02population so they are feeling uh disenfranchised the other thing we have to note is that Morocco is

03:10a constitutional monarchy um this is the first such protest which has happened which the country has

03:17seen witnessed post the Arab Spring and also the February 20 uh revolution in back in 2011.

03:27due to those due to those due to the Arab Spring those movements what we saw was that the monarch

03:35he got less powers and the powers were equally distributed between the monarch the legislature and the

03:42executive so Morocco is essentially a constitutional monarchy now that brings up that brings a dichotomy

03:51because a lot of these Gen Z protesters they are looking towards uh King Muhammad VI to basically to

04:02implement some policies which can rectify these uh issues which i just mentioned even the successor to

04:09King Muhammad VI the crown prince he himself is a Gen Z so a lot of the youth are resonating with his view

04:17his opinions and mobilizing as as how he will approach reforms when he will he's going to eventually

04:24succeed so not just uh the health and education uh grievances but also Morocco as a nation has not

04:32fully recovered also from the economic crisis from lingering economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic

04:38and also uh another development was that in 2023 uh there was a huge earthquake uh the i believe the

04:45al house uh earthquake so the so the Moroccan public who were affected they were also not fully they have

04:53still not been fully uh compensated the victims of it so uh there has been more acquisitions against the

05:00prime minister prime minister aziz uh who has been in power since 2021 end of 2021 uh and there was a

05:08prime minister aziz he is also the owner of the uh aqua group basically the aqua group basically that

05:16has he has a total network of around 1.6 or 1.7 billion dollars so how his personal uh interest how his

05:25personal projects and state projects are also being uh dealt with has also come under uh public scrutiny

05:33in recent year so although this initial protest uh was started by the gen z uh in a decentralized

05:39manner just the youth coming together but eventually just like how they have taken inspiration from similar

05:46events most recently in nepal and indonesia madagascar etc in this age of digital revolution they have been

05:53able to use uh social media messaging uh platforms communication platform like discord or tick tock

06:01etc to mobilize at such a uh in such a so so quickly you spoke about the 2011 arab spring protest in morocco

06:11at that time there must be some sort of a leadership or some sort of institutions or group of activists

06:18involved i mean that protest largely had a face but this time it did not have any sort of

06:23face or any uh you know leader coming up saying that i am the one who is actually calling out and

06:28supporting these protesters uh in their call to reforms uh so what do you think is it something

06:33deliberate which is happening or is it really the like people simply you know formed servers on discord

06:39and got together the uh the most of the protests where it has turned violent it has mostly turned violent in

06:47the suburban areas and it's not i mean it has started in this uh in the capital rabat but at the same time

06:54i mean it has mostly been prominent in smaller suburb cities and suburban areas within those cities in like

07:02in cities like saleh and uh ujda etc uh so the difference from the 2011 uh issue is that um the currently the youth they

07:14they banded together and they came but eventually just like what we saw in nepal as well the entire issue

07:22was highlight uh was hijacked by the political class this time there has been it has been the issue is

07:30completely driven by the gen z uh or gen alpha uh but the involvement of civil societies of of uh of

07:42popular persons etc has been limited whereas back in 2011 there there was a huge involvement of the

07:50civil society but that is in my opinion the primary difference this time that although it has been

07:56hijacked by the political class and started by the gen z and about to be hijacked by the political class

08:02where some political statements are coming across uh the difference from 2011 is that 2011 had more of

08:08a civil society representation rather than this time are we going to see more such protests happening

08:14around the globe because this is a digital world and people can easily you know uh galvanize support on

08:20these online platforms yes not just within uh within morocco but within if you look at the entire

08:25african continent uh there is a huge digital revolution taking care where people now realize that

08:33there is a huge opportunity for africa to be connected not geographically but digitally to

08:39digital means and the use of smartphones uh etc has been exponentially uh rising e-commerce payments etc

08:48the immediate threat uh is uh in my opinion um of course we have to look into uh other demonstrations

08:59which may arise as a result of the current crisis in morocco in maybe other north african countries and

09:05middle east countries uh similar to what happened in arab spring where it all started in tunisia and then it

09:12uh and the wave of protests uh extended to other parts of uh uh other other arab country uh the

09:21immediate country where we should focus our attention is probably uh going to be algeria where they

09:27algerian youth they have already actually started a hashtag to do similar protest and their hashtag is

09:35i believe uh gen z 213 you know the current government the prime minister of morocco and the

09:42you know governing coalition they are saying that this is something which has been done by the earlier

09:46governments all the national health infrastructure problems education problems this is the doing of

09:51the previous government and the current uh coalition government and their performances the youth

09:58have been uh voicing their concerns over their uh of their administration's uh so-called approach

10:07basically to that it's a kind of a dichotomy even the king mohammed six in a recent speech also uh he

10:17basically in a very recent speech he referred to the moroccan country as a sort of sort of a two-speed

10:23economy where kind of opposites coexist uh in a in a very dysfunctional uh context of manner uh on the

10:31one hand we see state-of-the-art infrastructures being an industrial project being undertaken by the

10:36government but on the other hand basic lack of access to basic uh vital public services they are

10:43performing uh very poorly so the current uh the current coalition government also has been under the fire

10:52uh they have been under public scrutiny for uh quite some time right uh do you think because this

10:58is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy that we're talking about so do you think that the king

11:03can play a role as a mediator between the pm and these zenzi protesters because the the zenzi protesters

11:11have their support for the king yes so uh the constitutional monarchy is uh very complicated and

11:19complex in nature so dividing powers between a monarch and the legislator and the executive branches it's

11:26not an easy task but that being said yes many demonstrators of the youth they are looking towards

11:33the king to take firm actions or decisions to address uh the failure of this political governing elite class

11:42and uh and to improve the degrading public uh services now the king also uh had back in during the arab

11:51spring he had uh responded positively to the demands of uh you know to all these demonstrations so

12:00naturally then now also the youth and all uh the moroccan youth they are expecting they are looking

12:05towards the king but this the dichotomy as i mentioned was that the same reforms

12:11due to arab spring which came about that in the same constitutional reforms all of that where the

12:18powers are now equally divided between the monarchy has less power all of that will obviously now make

12:24it more difficult for the king to just simply go ahead and dissolve the current coalition government it

12:30will require obviously a very broad uh political consensus and also actions deliberate actions from the

12:39parliament for the government side as well so in uh for the king to uh play a decisive role i

12:46but in my personal opinion i see it's a very limited in sport and lastly um what do you think will be the

12:53future of these investment projects uh the stadiums and everything do you think that the government can

12:59take a back step or it will continue uh to hold these international you know sports tournaments and the

13:05other projects i think the future of the infrastructure projects is secure and it's fine uh the moroccan

13:14government they have a very very good track record of uh dealing with demonstrations and photos

13:23uh i i mean previous examples have shown that uh so in my opinion uh this social revolution this

13:33movement is going to be absorbed in the coming weeks coming months time uh and a new and and normalcy

13:41will is likely to most likely to return back so this new digital social movement is uh in my opinion

13:47in my opinion unlikely to transform into some sort of a more

13:54political formative sort of a revolution what happened in nepal where government was completely

14:00all right thank you so much uh dr mishra for speaking with asianet news and providing the insights

14:06thank you thank you thank you for having me thank you

Gen Z 212 Protests: What Morocco's Youth Want? | EXCLUSIVE Interview with Africa Expert Dr. Mishra

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended