A Party Without a Homeland: The Absence of the Moroccan Flag Reveals the True Face of the Justice and Development Party
The Justice and Development Party is back in the spotlight, not as a political force but as a dark comedy that evokes more pity than anger. The recent festival of Abdelilah Benkirane in Kenitra was not a political rally; it was a funeral for a party that has lost everything: popularity, credibility, and even the bare minimum of national sentiment.
Only six hundred people bothered to show up—a dismal number for a party that once boasted millions of supporters. Worse still, these attendees did not come of their own volition; they were bused in on school transport, which should have been used for students, not to serve Benkirane in his latest theatrical performance. Ten buses were dispatched to gather the “audience,” revealing both organizational and moral bankruptcy.
To add an absurd touch, some rural women appeared, holding their national ID cards as if they were lottery tickets, waiting for promises of housing. Thus, the party turned politics into a cheap electoral bazaar, where dignity is traded for empty promises and attendance is bartered for crumbs of personal gain. Isn’t this a clear descent?
However, the major scandal wasn’t the turnout or the tacky method of mobilizing crowds; it was the absence of the national flag. Palestinian flags and party banners waved, while the Moroccan flag was conspicuously missing. This was not an oversight but a clear message: the party prioritizes the collective over the state, pledging allegiance to transnational slogans while forgetting the symbol of the homeland that granted it power for a full decade. What kind of nationalism favors the foreign over the domestic?
Benkirane himself appeared to be begging for mercy. His speech lacked vision or a coherent plan, merely a cold plea urging citizens to register for electoral lists to support him. It was as if he was asking people to give him another chance to repeat his past failures. The man who dismantled the subsidy fund and left Moroccans facing rising prices wants to return with the same tired populist rhetoric.
Worse still, many attendees did not even bother to wait for the end of Benkirane’s speech. As minutes passed, the hall gradually emptied, with the back rows vacated before he concluded his address. The scene of mass departure spoke louder than any commentary, a silent message indicating that the time for listening to Benkirane has ended, and that the audience no longer finds anything worth staying for.
Today, the Justice and Development Party is nothing more than a political ghost. A party that has lost everything except the ability to evoke dark humor. Its gathering in Kenitra resembled a theater troupe continuing to perform a tedious play before empty seats, yet still insisting on reaching the final curtain.
Some may argue that the party still has a sympathetic base. But what kind of base is this, transported by school buses and enticed with empty promises? What kind of base chants under flags other than the national flag?
The truth is that the end of this party is no longer a matter of time but of morals. Its demise came the day it abandoned the country in favor of the collective and sold slogans for a pittance. Moroccans have experienced its rule, tasted its bitterness, and will not be bitten by the same snake again.
