The departure of Al-Youssefi … the first opposition in the Arab world to participate peacefully in power



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He led the first political rotation experience in Morocco at the end of the reign of Hassan II

Abd al-Rahman al-Yousfi, the Moroccan socialist leader, died yesterday in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, at the age of 96, due to a health problem that hit him after a busy political journey.

Al-Youssefi was famous for being the first opposition in the Arab world to participate in power peacefully, when, at the end of the reign of the late King Hassan II, he led a coalition government (1998 and 2002), which he called a “consensual rotation government. “.

Idris Lashkar, the general secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, a participant in the government, mourned the late federal leader yesterday, saying: “I mourn all federations, federations, all Moroccan citizens and international public opinion for death. of the great leader and the jealous patriot Si Abd al-Rahman al-Yousfi, who left us today after A struggle with the disease in the last days ».

For his part, Dr Saad Eddin El Othmani, the head of the Moroccan government, described Al-Youssefi as “the political and national leader”. He wrote in a tweet: “It is with great sadness and regret that I received the news of the death of Professor Abdul Rahman Al-Yousfi, may Almighty God have mercy on him and forgive him. Our most sincere condolences to his family, small and large, and to all his loved ones, we ask God for patience and comfort, and we belong to God and to Him we will return “.

Al-Yousifi remained throughout his life highly appreciated by the royal palace and by Moroccan political circles in all its different shades, as was clearly evident when he was honored in March 2018 in Rabat on the occasion of the issue of his memoirs “conversations on what happened ”in the presence of the balanced presence of political and diplomatic figures, Arabs and foreigners.

These notes, prepared by his comrade in struggle, Mubarak Bouderqa, recount a long political journey that led the greatest opponent of the late King Hassan II’s regime to take on the experience of presiding over the 1998 consensual rotation government.

Al-Yousfi examined in his memoirs the totality of political and party events that Morocco was the scene of during the colonial period and after independence, stopping at all the cornerstones of its development through its relationship with political leaders, such as Abdel Rahim Bouabid, Mahdi Benbarka, Al-Faqih Al Basri and others, and what he faced Problems due to his trials and arrests.

Al-Youssefi paid the “fight fee” of his health through the prison remains. In the mid-1950s, he underwent surgery in which the doctor removed half of his right lung, and from then on he lived with one and a half lungs.

In 2003, Al-Youssefi announced his retirement from politics and the media after King Mohammed VI decided to appoint another prime minister, technocrat Idris Jettou, despite the Socialist Union of Popular Forces winning the 2002 elections. -Yousfi promised that he was “against democratic methodology”, mainly because he relied on the experience of consensual rotation to bring about a democratic transition in Morocco towards a system closer to the parliamentary monarchy, in which the prime minister is appointed by the party that wins the elections, with broad powers for the government.

Despite Al-Youssefi’s withdrawal from political action, the “rope of communication” remained and continues with King Mohammed VI, who kept calling him to participate in the joys of the royal family, or some official meetings, with some co- presidents and friends, and in some cases with his small family.

King Mohammed VI was not satisfied with this limitation in honoring Al-Youssefi. Last July, the name “Abd al-Rahman al-Yousfi” was given to the regiment of graduated officers from various military and paramilitary institutes and schools, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Session Day. He attributed the Moroccan monarch who chose the name Al-Youssefi to the fact that he shares with his father, the late King Hassan II, and with him, “the same firm principles of love for the nation, adherence to the holiness of the nation, the territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the defense of its supreme interests “. King Mohammed VI did not miss the opportunity to invite newly graduated officers to be “at the level of what this name embodies in terms of integrity, commitment, perseverance on principles and sincere patriotism; Faithful to your eternal motto: God, the Fatherland, the King. “On 30 July 2016, King Mohammed VI in Tangier supervised the inauguration of” Abdel Rahman Al Yousfi “street.

Youssefi was born on March 8, 1924 in Tangier and joined the ranks of the national movement, especially the Independence Party, when he was a student at Moulay Youssef High School in Rabat. The deceased was a member of the General Secretariat of the National Union of Popular Forces, which was transformed into the Socialist Union of Popular Forces in 1975. Al-Yousfi also hired the editor of the party newspaper “Al-Tahrir” (1959- 1965), and since August he has held the position of Secretary General of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces. 1995 to November 2002.

Al-Yousifi was also famous for his role in defending human rights and was a co-founder of the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

In November 2015, Al-Yousifi invited the Moroccan state to reveal what it knew about the fate of his partner, the dissident Mahdi Bin Baraka On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his kidnapping and disappearance in Paris in 1965, “for the sake of truth in itself and to end a 50-year funeral. ” Al-Yousfi said on that occasion, organized under the auspices of King Mohammed VI, “What happened happened, and no one can go back in history, and no one has the right to hide the truth or circumvent it, and no one has the right to treat it by forgetting it “. He asked “the countries that participated in the crime, or fell to their soil, to reveal what they know about the case for the sake of truth, and that the martyr have a tomb to hold his remains, and that his family can write the his name on it “, underlining that” without this decisive step Our brother’s blood will continue to stand between us and tranquility, which is indispensable for building a free and democratic nation “.

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