Morocco Feature: Will a Rapper's Release Be the Catalyst for More Protests?

Thursday's release of 24-year-old rapper Mouad Belghouat, a.k.a "El-Haqed", may be a significant catalyst for the swell of youth unrest. El-Haqed was defiant as he left the Casablanca prison where he had held for four months. AFP reports:

Belghouat, a member of the February 20 protest movement, was arrested in September after a brawl with a monarchist on charges his lawyers say were trumped up to silence a growing protest movement.

"There will be not turning back. Power to the people. Thanks to rap, I have committed myself for the people and its hardships. Our demands are huge," the defiant rapper told AFP on his release.

"We need a new deal, there is too much injustice. They brought in a new government but thieves are still enjoying impunity. We need to get rid of that scum," he said.

El-Haqed returned to the stage straight after his release --- note that several times the young crowd joins in with his pro-democracy and anti-regime sentiments.

This suggests that last week's protests in Casablanca and Tangier are likely to be on the same scale this weekend. Anger against both the regime and the police's tactics has grown since the violent attacks by police in Taza last week and Rabat on Monday.

Both the anger at the State's methods and the release of El-Haqed interact with the economic situation to propel protest, as we noted on Monday:

The potential catalyst for the resumption of widespread national protest remains the economic system and the high rate of youth unemployment (said to be near 30% for those under 35), especially with more than half of Morocco's population under 25, many of whom have graduate-level education.

It was anger at this system which sustained the February 20th Movement across the past year. In Taza, as in other cities, the issue is been a simple demand for jobs. If the new government is unable to address this issue --- and address it quickly --- it could rapidly lose the hope that many had invested in it. And the broader criticisms and calls for wider-reaching democratic reform advanced by the February 20th Movement, are likely to inspire a mass audience once again.