Welcoming Address of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, in Honor of His Excellency the President of the French Republic

Your Excellency the President of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel Macron,

Ladies and gentlemen, the entourage of His Excellency the President, 

Honorable Speaker of the House of Councilors,

Esteemed Head of the Government, 

Ladies and gentlemen, the esteemed Ministers,

Ladies and gentlemen, the honorable members of the two Houses of Parliament,

I am pleased, in my name and on behalf of the members of the Houses of Representatives and Councilors, to welcome Your Excellency Mr. President to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco, as a highly welcomed guest of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah assist him.

The visit of Your Excellency to Morocco upon a kind invitation of His Majesty, may Allah glorify him, reflects the historical bonds and multidimensional and cross-cutting anchored friendship that unites the French Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco, and your reception under this dome has many connotations and proves that our two countries share several noble values, namely democracy, human rights, political and partisan plurality, the Rule of Law, and institutions resulting from transparent elections.

Your Excellency Mr. President,

I seize the opportunity of receiving you at the Moroccan Parliament to recall the tenor of the Royal Speech addressed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI to the members of the Parliament at the opening of the ongoing legislative session on October 11, where His Majesty expressed, in his name and on behalf of the Moroccan people, the heartfelt expressions of gratitude and thanks to France for its frank support to the Moroccanity of the Sahara and its recognition of the Sovereignty of the Kingdom over all the Sahara territory, as well as its support to the Autonomy initiative under the Moroccan national integrity as the sole basis for the resolution of the artificial conflict over the territorial integrity of the Kingdom.

It is also an opportunity for us, the electees of the Moroccan people, to extend to you a bountiful thanks and gratitude for this position that advocates historical legitimacy, affirming to you that the components of the Moroccan Parliament, and by extension the Moroccan people, will always remember this wise position that advocates right and legitimacy, as His Majesty had noted before that the territorial integrity of the Kingdom is a sacred and existential question for Moroccans.

Your Excellency Mr. President,

The Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco, which is honored to receive you today, is a manifestation of the maturity achieved by the Moroccan democracy and the reforms accumulated by the Kingdom, hence laying the foundations of an authentic and deep-rooted democratic model regulated by a liberal and progressive Constitution whose core is the protection of human rights, liberties, plurality, and diversity, given that they are prerequisites for development, progress, and stability.

The Moroccan Parliament that receives you today is honored to entertain cooperation and dialogue ties and to conduct, for years now, an institutional twinning program with the French National Assembly and Senate, hence facilitating the sharing of best practices, the exchange of visits, and dialogue amidst a context where institutional democracy most needs tributaries that reinforce it and consolidate the trust of citizens in it.

I welcome you again, Your Excellency Mr. President, and invite you to give your speech.