Between the legislative elections taking place in France, after the dissolution of the National Assembly announced by Emmanuel Macron on the evening of the European elections, and the presidential elections taking place in the United States, politics is on everyone’s lips. And in Morocco too, where things are being followed closely.
The New Popular Front, the National Rally or Together? Who to vote for when you are bi-national? Everyone brandishes their arguments in favor of one or against the other, during lively oratory contests, where questions of the territorial integrity of Morocco and that of Palestine arise. The choice is far from obvious and pushes certain Franco-Moroccans to vote against certain values, in favor of the recognition of the Sahara that the extreme right could bring; when others choose to remain faithful to the Palestinian question defended by the left, putting the interest of their other country second. A difficult choice that reminds us of that of Jamel Debbouze during the World Cup: having to choose between his father and his mother.
Once the question of the French legislative elections has been decided, we turn more to the West. Donald Trump or Joe Biden? Beyond the interests of Morocco that are emerging in the elections being played out in France and the United States, how is it that we are so captivated by politics when it takes place elsewhere, to the point of assiduously following political debates on foreign channels and watching for the results of the ballot boxes?
It is clear that the way of dealing with politics has changed considerably, to the point that the debate has managed to become democratized and capture the attention of younger people. Because from France to the United States, electoral campaigns are now played out on social networks using the same communication methods: short, impactful messages and a good dose of humor and sarcasm.
With GIFs, memes and cleverly edited punchlines, certain candidates, led by Jordan Bardella and Donald Trump (78 years old!) – it’s a fact – have been able to adopt the communication codes of a generation that he you have to know how to captivate in a few seconds. We can only admire the way in which French and American politics are reinventing themselves and thus managing to capture the attention of a younger electorate.
And even the television sets which have also been able to renew themselves. There was a time when politics, this very serious subject, was debated on gloomy sets. Aging journalists, facing equally aging politicians, in dreary television sets, tackling complicated subjects with learned and often hollow words… Today, the situation has changed and it is on the sets with the acidic pop colors of Cyril Hanouna and his competitor Yann Barthès that politicians put on a show, agreeing to come down from their pedestal to answer, in a language understood by all, the simplest questions, those that everyone asks themselves.
In Morocco, we are still light years away from this way of doing things. However, the fact that 32% of the Moroccan population is aged 15 to 34, and that it displays a notorious disinterest in the political question, should have alarmed us for a long time. Because to the distrust of the youngest towards politicians, programs in which they do not find themselves, speeches worn out to the bone, is added a way of communicating that is not theirs.
So when will there be a revival so that politics becomes everyone’s business? The question is all the more important since among the high school graduates who have just successfully completed their final year of high school, many of them each year consider their diploma as a sesame to other countries, where they think their future is written. What future for political life in Morocco, but also for the country, if its youth turns away from it because they do not feel concerned?
