25 years after his death, King Hassan II remains a central figure in the Moroccan collective imagination. This is evidenced by the videos documenting his speeches and press conferences which have accumulated millions of views on YouTube, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), and elicit positive comments.
Hassan II is a reference from which the generation of Moroccans who knew him and the younger generation born in 1999 after his death, draw positions and opinions on current national and international issues. Videos documenting the sovereign’s speeches and press conferences on current political issues such as the Moroccan Sahara issue, the recent Moroccan-French crisis, or relations with Israel published on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, his eloquence, as well that his political wisdom commands admiration.
To read: Confidences of King Hassan II on Algeria resurface
Many Moroccans watched the videos of King Hassan II during the period of the diplomatic crisis which lasted for months between Morocco and France. Every time a political or historical question linked to the legacy of the father of King Mohammed VI is raised, videos or sequences of videos are republished on Facebook, X and Tiktok. And Moroccan Internet users cannot help but comment on these republications which evoke the political wisdom of the late king, but also some of the famous choices he made in the face of the crises that Morocco faced during his reign.
To read: Hassan II: Gilles Perrault, author of “Our friend the king” has died
The observation is the same in schools and universities where the speeches of Hassan II are subjects of analysis for many students who try to understand the sensitive phases of the modern history of Morocco. But it is not only Moroccans who are showing interest in videos documenting the speeches and press conferences of the late Hassan II. The late king enjoys a notoriety that goes beyond Moroccan borders. “Hassan II also arouses the curiosity of foreigners who, through these extracts, discover a cultured and modern king, capable of facing difficult diplomatic challenges,” we note.
