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

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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.   #GenZ212 #MoroccoProtests #YouthMovement #AbhishekMishra #InFocus #MoroccanYouth #SocialJustice #HealthcareReform #EducationReform #DigitalProtests #Morocco2025 #Exclusive #World   🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE  Download the Asianet News App now!  Available on Android & iOS  👉 Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vserv.asianet&hl=en_IN   👉 iOS:  https://apps.apple.com/in/app/asianet-news-official/id1093450032   For More Updates:  Follow us on our What's app Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va5Bq3yKwqSLSQTxam0r  English: https://newsable.asianetnews.com/  Hindi: https://hindi.asianetnews.com/  Malayalam: https://www.asianetnews.com/  Kannada: https://kannada.asianetnews.com/  Tamil: https://tamil.asianetnews.com/  Telugu: https://telugu.asianetnews.com/  Bengali: https://bangla.asianetnews.com/  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNewsa...  Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsEN  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.newsable/  ➡ If you like our video, give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel to get the daily dosage of news, entertainment, sports and more.

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 a 212 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

00:53grievances what are some of the important systemic issues zainzi protesters are uh you know talking

01:00about yes uh thank you for having me uh so the trigger point for this uh current uh ongoing

01:06protest uh it started uh in mid-september this year when uh moroccan government uh they unveiled

01:14a new soccer stadium which was to hold post the african cup of nations later this year the

01:21mule abdulillah of the last soccer stadium which reportedly it costs around 75 million dollars

01:30now simultaneously as the government was uh uh was erecting this stadium uh there were several reports

01:38from different parts in morocco that due to patients were dying in hospitals public hospitals due to

01:45medical negligence so that again brought back amongst the moroccan population brought back several

01:53questions about what exactly are the developmental priorities of morocco why is morocco following

02:03uh so-called infrastructure uh driven foreign policy rather than looking at their own domestic issues

02:13issues so on 27th september uh gen z primarily using the hashtag uh 212 is basically uh morocco's uh

02:25international country code uh they expressed their in a first initially in a peaceful manner they

02:31expressed frustration over the degrading education as well as uh health services uh and they brought out the

02:39the anomaly where uh the government is building all these uh state-of-the-art uh infrastructure uh but at the

02:47same time they are not uh looking to uh rectify these uh domestic priorities now if you have to realize that

02:56in morocco youth they make up one third of the moroccan entire population so they are feeling uh

03:05disenfranchised the other thing we have to note is that morocco is a constitutional monarchy

03:13this is the first such protest which has happened which the country has seen witnessed

03:18post the arab spring and also the february 20 uh revolution in back in 2011. due to those due to the

03:29arab spring those movements what we saw was that the monarch he got less powers and the powers were equally

03:38distributed between the monarch the legislature and the executive so morocco is essentially a

03:46constitutional monarchy now that brings up that brings a dichotomy because a lot of these gen z

03:53protesters they are looking towards uh king muhammad the sixth to basically to implement some policies

04:03which can rectify these uh issues which i just mentioned even the successor to king muhammad the sixth

04:10the crown prince he himself is a gen z so a lot of the youth are resonating with his view his opinions

04:18and mobilizing as as how he will approach reforms when he will he's going to eventually succeed so not

04:26just uh the health and education uh grievances but also morocco as a nation has not fully recovered

04:33also from the economic crisis from lingering economic crisis of the covet 19 pandemic and also uh another

04:41development was that in 2023 uh there was a huge earthquake uh the i believe the all all house uh

04:47earthquake so the moroccan public who were affected they were also not fully they have still not been

04:53fully uh compensated the victims of it so uh there has been more acquisitions against the prime minister

05:00prime minister aziz uh who has been in power since 2021 end of 2021 uh and the prime minister aziz he is

05:10also the owner of the uh aqua group basically the aqua group basically that has he has a total network

05:18of around 1.6 or 1.7 billion dollars so how his personal uh interest how his personal projects and

05:26state projects are also being uh dealt with has also come under uh public scrutiny in recent year so

05:34although this initial protest uh was started by the gen z uh in a decentralized manner just the youth

05:40coming together but eventually just like how they have taken inspiration from similar events

05:47most recently in nepal and indonesia madagascar etc in this age of digital revolution they have been able to

05:54use uh social media messaging platforms communication platform like discord or tick tock etc to mobilize at such a

06:03uh in such a uh so so quickly you spoke about the 2011 arab spring protest in morocco uh at that time

06:12there must be some sort of a leadership or some sort of institutions or group of activists involved

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

06:25leader coming up saying that i am the one who is actually calling out and supporting these protesters

06:30uh in their call to reforms uh so what do you think is it something deliberate which is happening or is

06:35it really the like people simply you know formed servers on discord and got together the uh the most

06:42the protests where it has turned violent it has mostly turned violent in the suburban areas

06:48and it's not i mean it has started in this uh in the capital rabat but at the same time i mean it has

06:56mostly 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

07:11the currently the youth they banded together and they came but eventually just like what we saw in

07:20nepal as well the entire issue was highlight uh was hijacked by the political class this time

07:27there has been it has been the issue is completely driven by the gen z or gen alphas uh but the

07:36involvement of civil societies of of uh of popular persons etc has been limited whereas back in 2011

07:48there there was a huge involvement of the civil society but that is in my opinion the primary

07:53difference this time that although it has been hijacked by the political class and started by the

08:00gen z and about to be hijacked by the political class where some political statements are coming

08:05across uh the difference from 2011 is that 2011 had more of a civil society representation around that

08:10this time are we see are we going to see more such protests happening around the globe because this is a

08:16digital world and people can easily you know uh galvanize support on these online platforms yes not

08:22just within uh within morocco but within if you look at the entire african continent uh there is a

08:28huge digital revolution taking care where people now realize that there is a huge opportunity for africa

08:36to be connected not geographically but digitally through digital means and the use of smartphones

08:42uh etc has been exponentially uh rising e-commerce payments etc the immediate threat uh is uh in my

08:52opinion um of course we have to look into uh other demonstrations which may arise as a result of

09:01the current crisis in morocco in maybe other north african countries and middle east countries

09:06uh similar to what happened in arab spring where it all started in tunisia and then it and the wave of

09:13protests uh extended to other parts of uh uh other other arab country uh the immediate country where we

09:23should focus our attention is probably uh going to be algeria where they algerian youth they have already

09:29actually started a hashtag to do similar protest uh and their hashtag is i believe uh gen z213 you

09:38know the current government the prime minister of morocco and the you know governing coalition they

09:43are saying that this is something which has been done by the earlier governments all the national health

09:48infrastructure problems education problems this is the doing of the previous government and the

09:53current uh coalition government and their performances the youth have been uh voicing their concerns over

10:02their uh of their administration's uh so-called approach basically to that it's a kind of a dichotomy even

10:11the king mohammed six in a recent speech also uh he basically in a very recent speech he referred to

10:20the moroccan country as a sort of sort of a two-speed economy where kind of opposites coexist uh in a in a

10:28very dysfunctional uh context of manner uh on the one hand we see state-of-the-art infrastructures being

10:34an industrial project being undertaken by the government but on the other hand basic lack of access to basic

10:41vital public services they are performing uh very poorly so the current uh the current coalition

10:49government also has been under the fire uh they have been under public scrutiny for uh quite some

10:56time right uh do you think because this is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy that we're

11:01talking about so do you think that the king can play a role as a mediator between the pm and these

11:07zenzi protesters because the the zenzi protesters have their support for the king yes so uh the

11:15see constitutional monarchy is uh very complicated and complex in nature so dividing powers between a

11:22monarch and the legislator and the executive branches it's not an easy task but that being said uh yes

11:29many demonstrators of the youth they are looking towards uh the king uh to take

11:36firm actions or decisions to address uh the failure of this political governing elite class and

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

11:52he had uh responded positively to the demands of uh you know to all these demonstrations so naturally

12:01then now also the youth and all the moroccan youth they are expecting they are looking towards the king but

12:07this the dichotomy as i mentioned was that the same reforms due to arab spring which came about that

12:13into the same constitutional reforms all of that where the powers are now equally divided between

12:20the monarchy has less power all of that will obviously now make it more difficult for the king to

12:26just simply go ahead and dissolve the current uh coalition government it will require obviously a very

12:31uh broad uh political uh consensus and also actions deliberate actions from the parliament from the

12:40government side as well so in uh for the king to uh play a decisive role i in my personal opinion

12:47i see it's a very limited in scope and lastly um what do you think will be the future of these

12:54investment projects uh the stadiums and everything do you think that the government can take a back step or

13:00it will continue uh to hold these international you know sports tournaments and the other projects

13:07i think the future of the infrastructure projects is secure and it's fine uh the moroccan government

13:15they 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 movement

13:34is going to be absorbed in the coming weeks coming months time uh and a new and and normalcy will

13:42is likely to most likely to return back so this new digital social movement is uh in my opinion unlikely to

13:49transform 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

14:15you

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

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