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Family Code reforms in Morocco have led the country's Justice and Development Party (PJD) Islamists and the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) socialists to break up after years of reconciliation.
This is evidenced by comments made by the secretary general of the PJD, Abdelilah Benkirane, on Sunday, March 3 in Casablanca on his «ally» Nabil Benabdellah, during the government he led from January 2012 to April 2017.
Disputing the recommendations signed by the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and the PPS, published in the joint press release of February 16, relating to the reform of the Family Code, Benkirane targeted both Benabdellah and Driss Lachgar, the first secretary of USFP. He accused them of «opposing the Quran and the Maliki rite» and of lacking the courage «to express it publicly to Moroccans».
It is worth mentioning that the two left-wing parties had recommended integrating into the next Family Code provisions advocating in particular for clear equality between men and women, the prohibition and penalization of child marriage, the affirmation of the couple's joint responsibility in matters of guardianship over children, the prohibition of polygamy, the cancellation of inheritance by agnation (Taassib) and the repeal of article 400 of the current Family Code. This text requires, in fact, to refer to the prescriptions of the Maliki rite and/or to the conclusions of the jurisprudential effort (Ijtihad), for everything which has not been expressly stated in the Family Code.
Simmering tensions explode into open conflict
Benkirane's accusations were strongly condemned by the president of the PPS group in the House of Representatives, Rachid Hammouti. He denounced them as «dangerous and offensive» statements for Moroccan society and the emerging democratic experience. The MP also pointed out a flagrant violation of the duty of respect between leaders and political parties.
On his social networks, Hammouti condemned «statements which incite ‘Fitna’ and societal division, and contain an explicit threat of ‘revolt’ against any modernization of the reform of the Family Code».
This clash between Islamists and socialists is unsurprising, even during the «honeymoon» period between the two parties, during Benkirane’s term as head of government. This is evidenced by the arguments in March 2014 over the reform of article 20 of the current Family Code, relating to the conditions of marriages of minors.
These divergences, which the alliance sealed in December 2011 between Benkirane and Benabdellah had been able to contain within a limited framework, namely Parliament, thus avoiding any spillover into the public square during this truce. But since then, the context has changed. The PJD has suffered significant political losses. The PPS turned its back on it and even concluded, on December 15, a coordination agreement with the USFP of Driss Lachgar, a man not exactly favored by Benkirane himself.
On March 3 in Casablanca, the secretary general of the PJD threatened to organize a large-scale march against the recommendations in the proposed revision of the Family Code, which he considers hostile to Islam.
It remains to be seen whether this divide between Islamists and socialists will have consequences on the draft motion of censure against the Akhannouch government, which the opposition plans to table at the start of the spring session, in April, in the House of Representatives.
