Address of Speaker of House of Representatives on Opening of Second Session of Fifth Legislative Year of Tenth Legislature
Minister of State,
Fellow representatives,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We open today the last legislative session of the tenth legislature in peculiar circumstances and amidst the transformations dictated by the coronavirus pandemic and all its repercussions on the political, economic, and social aspects of life, and on our perceptions and behavior.
We launch, today, this session after an extraordinary one that was the third of its kind during the tenth legislature, and during which we approved nine bills, including organic and ordinary ones. Such texts that are undoubtedly important on the political and institutional levels as they are divided between bills that regulate the elections that will take place in our country later this year, and ones that cover governance and transparency; principles and values that the public opinion has been aspiring for as part of implementing the provisions of the 2011 Constitution.
We must acknowledge the importance of approving these bills in reinforcing the institutional construction, and in ensuring the consistency of the free elections that entrench the people’s sovereignty, despite the exceptional circumstances.
We also have to be proud as Moroccans, as citizens of this deep-rooted centuries-old country, of this keenness to organize the elections, which is a reflection of the state of institutions and its stability and viability. We also have to be proud of the fact that our country is part of the free democratic world, and that the commitment of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may god glorify him, and of all the authorities and political components to organize the elections is accompanied by a collective eagerness to ensure their transparency and hold them within a framework that ensures their credibility, fairness, and guarantees equal chances to all the political forces taking part in them. The surest winner in such event is our country, its powers, and its international and geopolitical positioning. The winner is also the stability of our Kingdom and its democratic model that arises amidst a highly tempestuous regional area, marked with issues and problematics that do not seem to be resolved soon.
Hence, we must rise to the level of the gains of our country and its political achievements and the reforms it has achieved thanks to great and historical agreements and thanks to the accumulated reforms over decades, and also thanks to the wisdom and foresight of its great Kings, the Late His Majesty Mohammed V, and the Late His Majesty Hassan II may their souls rest in peace, and His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God bless him with a long life.
The consistence and transparency of elections surely guarantee the stability of institutions and reflect democracy and constitute an opportunity for political parties to communicate with electors and perform their undeniable and irrevocable role. Such institutional stability, of which we, as people, institutions, and political components should be proud, is what guarantees the successful achievement of development. It is also the gate towards a future rife with promising and new achievements. This stability guarantees the continuation of our brilliance as a nation that has historically been positioned as a power with decisive roles in the events that take place in the continental, euro-Mediterranean, Arab, and Islamic spheres, and of effect and contribution to human history.
Fellow representatives,
What increases the prominence and criticality of this stage is the persistence of COVID-19 and its repercussions on the health, economic, and social aspects of life. If this pandemic is the fate of humanity for the third decade of the third millennium, then its management and the fight against it and its challenges are the elements that make the difference between countries.
In this respect, and as much as the financial, logistical, economic, health, and human resources mobilized for this purpose are essential, reality has proven that leadership is just as important and decisive in fighting the pandemic and its consequences.
The management by our country of the crisis emanating from the pandemic under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, and the engagement of numerous institutions, has produced a unique and pioneering Moroccan model, which was lauded by various international organizations, foreign partners, and impartial observers. This Moroccan model has arisen in the form of policies, measures, laws, financing and manufacturing mechanisms, and organized priorities that are fully aligned with the Moroccan context and the peculiarity of the customs of Morocco in tough exceptional circumstances. For instance, the Moroccan model has managed to invert the dangers into precautions, the scarce resources into practical and efficient innovative initiatives, the crises into opportunities, and the manifestations of social deficit into movements of solidarity and national cohesion.
Some of you might wonder about the evidence of difference in these examples. Once again, I would like to affirm here that these measures reflect the value of leadership and the strong leadership of His Majesty the King in managing the pandemic. Morocco succeeded before in absorbing the primary shocks of the pandemic’s spread and in stepping up to the challenges it dictated, both by imposing the lockdown and mobilizing the economic and social resources it requires, by handling patients, and by the pedagogical and awareness-raising efforts done by the central and local public authorities and the collective mobilization to limit the propagation of the pandemic. Morocco is also leading a greater success in the vaccination campaign launched by His Majesty on January 28, 2021, and which strategy our country has perfectly elaborated using principles, criteria, and plans that include its being free-of-charge, the organization of priorities and the fair distribution on the bases of areal and categorical equality, prioritizing the entitled people who stand in the front rows of the fight against the pandemic, and following precise and strict criteria in the execution.
Fellow representatives,
We, therefore, must acknowledge the value and significance of what we are about to achieve under the rule of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and his visionary and proactive leadership. We are about to go through crucial transformations and transitions in different areas, which impose several challenges and require a collective intelligence and mobilization around His Majesty the King.
These are three major transitions:
First, our country is on the verge of adopting and implementing a novel development model that His Majesty the King called for in October 2017 and July 2018 and formed a special committee in charge of elaborating a comprehensive and multi-sectoral vision using a participatory and consultative approach that lies on objective dialogue and analysis, and openness on different views. This model will surely require a set of actions in legislation, legal and institutional regulation, control, and evaluation, which dictates cooperation and complementarity between all branches to enforce governance and good management criteria, and to mobilize for running the reform projects successfully; a reform that is undoubtedly promising and efficient and will be at the heart of this model. The House and its political components will, for sure, have a decisive role too in this strategic project.
What the Kingdom of Morocco has accumulated over 50 years of achievements and gains in basic infrastructure, financial and institutional reforms, and opening and liberalizing the market will form a strong base that will be the cornerstone for implementing this new development model.
The second transition consists in that our country, in the context of the new development model and in reflection of its social aspects, is about to launch a decisive transition in the area of social protection. Following our approval of the framework law relating to this noble project, we will be required to adopt the bills related to this framework-law. It is a multidimensional project that His Majesty the King launched and determined its outline and major goals in July 2020. It is not only a matter of giving solidarity and aid a modern national, legal, and institutional dimension with the contribution of all parties, but it is essentially an investment in citizens and an attempt to guarantee their rights to adequate health services, good fruitful education that eases the equality of opportunities and opens the doors towards social advancement and constitutes a bridge towards ending vulnerability and disparities, and towards a comfortable pension that guarantees dignity. I am sure that we, as political components, agree on the resolute importance of this strategic project in enhancing the trust of citizens in their institutions and consolidating social unity. The return of this project will be collective and public, and will be one of the levers of the Moroccan emergence, and will concretely reflect the concept of social rights granted by the Constitution. It is a modern social contract and a national project that structures social services and solidarity and stimulates entrenching national belonging.
The third transition, and in relation to the aspired ambitious economic and social transformations, and to afford its financial requirements, is the creation, by order of His Majesty the King in his Throne speech on July 29, 2020, and his speech on the opening of the 2020-2021 legislative year on October 9, 2020, of the “Mohammed VI Investment Fund.” This fund is a strategic investment fund that will finance and give new impetus to investment in its various areal, territorial, and sectoral aspects, with positive impacts on employment and social inclusion, and the dissemination of the entrepreneurial spirit and culture. Thanks to this fund, our country will once again have succeeded in providing further financial and public intervention mechanisms to confront the current and upcoming repercussions of the pandemic, and transformed the issues emanating from the pandemic to opportunities of reform and injection of more credits into investment and production.
It is out of objectivity and due gratitude and acknowledgment and respect that I reaffirm that His Majesty King Mohammed VI is leading our country, through these major renovating and ambitious projects, amidst the tough national and global circumstances, with wisdom and foresight towards achieving the model of the welfare state that has proven itself of urgent necessity amidst the pandemic.
Fellow representatives,
The major projects that will be soon launched put us, as political components, representative institutions, and political elites, in front of historical responsibilities, and require from us an exceptional mobilization, a consensus that does not revoke difference, and a capitalization that achieves accumulation.
At the House of Representatives, we are required to mobilize to perform our legislative and control duties, and to make of our discussions of the policies, programs, and legislation related to these projects an opportunity to engage and contribute in them from our positions. The nobility of this social project that aims to consolidate modernization and democratization, and to fight poverty, alienation, and vulnerability and prevent despair, does not allow wasting any second of political time in a world where nations are racing towards taking positions in the new world order the pandemic will create.
In this respect, we need to recall the selfishness the pandemic has revealed at the global level, which was often masked in nationalist speeches, such as in the race towards monopolizing the anti-covid vaccines. This reconfirms that national unity and rallying around institutions and managing differences and conflicts with constructive dialogue are levers of protecting the country and preserving its uniqueness, strength, and development.
In parallel with all of this, and in dialectical connection with it, we should pursue our collective mobilization and continuous readiness, and remain vigilant to continue to protect our territorial integrity and to confront the old/new ambitions and cowardly maneuvers that the foes of our territorial integrity continue to run in order to turn back history in order to resolve their crises. Certainly, the House of Representatives will continue its mobilization on this issue in bilateral and multilateral frameworks in defense of our country's legitimate rights and to counter the maneuvers of those who oppose our first national cause. In relation to the new development model, we should be proud that our southern provinces have been for years at the forefront of the regions where an inclusive and developmental model is run, and where multi-input and multi-dimensional public investments are launched, making them attractive for national and international private investment and a modern and advanced bridge to the rest of Africa.
It is a bet that we are winning gradually thanks to the strong and advanced ties linking Morocco to its brotherly African countries in various fields, and the projects in which our country is engaged on the continent and its African policy, led by His Majesty the King, which is based on honesty, the quest for common profit, favorizing Africa, and defending its peoples and causes.
Fellow representatives,
Amidst this intense national dynamic, we in the House of Representatives should, during this session, accelerate the pace of the legislation by ratifying the bills referred to the House, and deciding the fate of the 229 parliamentary bills, as a way to value the legislative initiatives of the House members, considering that they consecrate the competence, implement the provisions of the Constitution, and develop our parliamentary traditions.
On the other hand, we will pursue our control functions by programming general and sectoral policy questions, ensuring that we respond to the expectations of citizens, and that we address societal issues through calm dialogue on the basis of cooperation and complementarity between branches.
In the same context, we are called upon to complete the remaining exploratory missions carried out by the standing committees, due to their importance in control, the pedagogical work they perform, and their diagnosis of the situation of a number of public institutions and policies, in addition to the suggestions and recommendations they contain to refine these policies and overcome potential imbalances, bearing in mind that the number of missions being carried out is eight. In the same area, we will witness the presentation and discussion of the report of the thematic working group in charge of evaluating public policies in elementary education, a sector of utmost importance in national development.
On another note, and as a contribution by the House to the elaboration of a national vision for the reform of the healthcare system, we will have to discuss and enrich the report prepared on the subject by the thematic working group we had set up for this purpose.
Fellow representatives,
These were some of the conclusions on some of our collective national achievements and some reflections on what we are required to do as part of our duties and tasks, which we should perform faithfully, with the required quality and under political and moral commitment, in the service of our country's causes and its progress under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may god assist him.
Thank you for listening