Morocco's once secretive Socialists have launched a mass membership drive to boost their chances at polls next year in which their message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists. Business leaders and urban elites hope the Socialists can block a bid for power by an Islamist movement they see as a hurdle to the North African kingdom's development toward liberal democracy after decades of repressive rule.
| “We want our people to build a better future and be proud of their history and past. We do not accept that our future resembles our past.” |
"We need the mobilization of the people to build a modern state," Mohammed El-Yazghi, head of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), said in a recent Reuters interview. Asked if he saw Islamists as his main rival, he replied: "I do not want to name a party but our adversaries are anti-democratic forces. We want our people to build a better future and be proud of their history and past," he said.
"We do not accept that our future resembles our past," he added, an indirect reference to Islamist groups whom Socialists accuse of wanting to reduce individual rights, including women's liberties and social freedoms. |