King Mohammed VI was in France when the earthquake struck his country on Friday evening, September 8. 1st came^{There is} September in Paris, where he owns a magnificent private mansion 1,600 m high² At the Champ-de-Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, disaster caught him far from home, and all Morocco seemed to float for a few hours in the face of tragedy.

Yet here he is now in Rabat, sitting in a djellaba and wearing a fez, in front of a crowd of men in suits and ties, whom a camera has been sent to film ” Work Meeting », warned the Moroccan TV presenter. A few steps from the sovereign, the young crown prince Moulay el-Hassan stands as thin and timid as a frightened doe. Facing them, the full political and military names of Morocco: the prime minister, generals, health authorities and intelligence services. There was no sound of the meeting except for this long statement delivered over the voice-over: “His Majesty the King has given his highest instructions to proceed expeditiously with relief work on the ground. » This single silent image, which has been playing on television since Saturday afternoon, was enough to indicate that the authorities were now officially dealing with the disaster.

Until then, no member of the government, not even the chief among them, had dared to speak publicly about the Friday evening earthquake. Not a picture of the interior minister continuing to tally the death toll — more than 2,000, now — from the violent earthquake in al-Haus province, southeast of Marrakech. No more than armies, soldiers were sent to rescue dozens of villages that had been destroyed at the same time. There were no reports from Marrakesh of the mayor or local elected officials, although many residents of the imperial city were sleeping in the city’s gardens since Friday evening, with most buildings fortunately largely spared for fear of tremors from the earthquake. The king was not there and the earthquake seemed to swallow all the heads of state in a mysterious bug.

We now await Mohammed VI in Marrakesh and its environs. Monday, so the rumor goes. But everything still hangs on this appearance, as if only he could embody the state. “It is an unwritten code, but unfailingly followed, that no official should speak or move before the sovereign.”, notes political scientist and journalist Omar Brooksy. Already, in 2004, during the earthquake that killed more than 600 people in Al-Hoceima province,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ had been done in 2004. The royal tent.

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