The spectacle of young migrants swimming en masse from Moroccan waters to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta exposed the frustration felt by a generation. One-third of the population of Morocco is aged between 15 and 30, and more than one third of that cohort is unemployed. A dearth of opportunity at home incentivises young men in particular to take huge risks to reach the European Union. More than 100 people died in that attempted exodus, most of them by drowning.
Worryingly, an adequate domestic response to a huge generational challenge is a long way off, if Morocco’s latest parliamentary election serves as any guide. In the wake of the Arab spring, democratising reforms were introduced to Morocco’s monarchical system. But a decade and a half after that supposedly transformative moment, last week’s poll laid bare an alarming collapse of trust in politics among the young.
