Abdelilah Benkirane

Abdelilah Benkirane (2014)

Abdelilah Benkirane ( Arabic عبد الإله بنكيران, DMG ʿAbd al-Ilāh Binkīrān ; * April 4, 1954 in Rabat ) is a Moroccan politician and was Prime Minister of Morocco from 2011 to 2017. He was also chairman of the Justice and Development Party (PJD).

On March 15, 2017, the king deposed him.

Family and education

Benkirane grew up in Rabat. While his father was interested in Sufism , his mother was politically active in the nationalist Istiqlal party . After graduating from the Lycée Moulay Youssef in Rabat, Abdelilah Benkirane was a student at the École Mohammadia d'ingénieurs (EMI). During his student days he was a politically left activist before turning to the Islamist camp. He married a party activist and has 6 children. One of his daughters has quadriplegia .

Career

Benkirane during the WEF 2012

Benkirane has been a member of parliament for the electoral district of Salé since 1997 . Abdelilah Benkirane was elected chairman of his party on July 20, 2008 in Rabat. He received 684 votes, replacing his predecessor Saadeddine Othmani , who received only 495 votes. (Followed by Abdellah Baha with 14 votes.)

In the parliamentary elections in Morocco in 2011 , he faced a bloc of eight palatial liberal parties that tried to prevent his party's electoral victory, but they did not succeed. According to the new constitution, the head of government now had to come from the ranks of the Justice and Development Party as it became the strongest party with 107 out of 395 seats. On November 29, 2011 he was by King Mohammed VI. appointed Prime Minister.

The Benkirane I government was supported by the PJD, Istiqlal , PPS and the popular movement . After the Istiqlal left the government, the PJD, PPS, the People's Movement and the National Collection of Independents formed the Benkirane II government in 2013. After the parliamentary elections in Morocco in 2016 , after several months of political stalemate, Benkirane failed to form a new coalition government and was on March 15 Dismissed by the king in 2017. As a result, he also resigned his parliamentary mandate. On December 10, 2017, he did not stand for re-election as general secretary at a party congress of the PJD. Saadeddine Othmani , who had already been entrusted with the formation of a government by the king, was able to win the party election and win the power struggle with the Benkirane wing within the party.

Political positions

As head of government, Benkirane stated in an interview that he did not want to dictate to young girls and women how they should dress. In 2013, under his administration, the United Nations hosted a congress on the future of women in leadership positions. This congress was chaired by the Islamist Minister for Women, Bassima Hakkaoui .

He described secularism as a “dangerous concept” for Morocco in the past and launched an unsuccessful campaign in 2010 to prevent an appearance by Elton John , whom he accused of “promoting homosexuality”.

During his tenure, he developed relations with the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council . He has been working for a political solution to the Second Libyan Civil War since 2014 and supports the peace process. The parties to the conflict there met several times in Morocco under the leadership of the UN and the Moroccan government. At the same time support Mohammed VI. and Benkirane also Saudi Arabia in its military operation in Yemen with fighter jets of the Royal Moroccan Air Force .

The primary goals of his policy are to develop the Moroccan economy further, to reduce unemployment and to continue the democratic process (which emerged in the course of the Arab Spring in 2011).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Early voting in Morocco. Moderate Islamists win the election. Rheinische Post , November 26, 2011, accessed on November 27, 2011 . 
2. ^ Morocco: Islamists see themselves as election winners. The opposition party PJD has already been considered the favorite in the elections in North Africa. Courier , November 26, 2011, accessed October 15, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Reiner Wandler: Slap for the royal family. Die Tageszeitung , November 27, 2011, accessed on November 27, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Benkirane appointed Prime Minister. Retrieved November 29, 2011 . 
5. ^ Regional Council Morocco: Biography Benkirane ( Memento from June 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ El-Othmani appointed Telquel.ma as General Secretary of the PJD on December 10, 2017