A few weeks ago I began to try to understand the situation in earnest, in particular to verify the myth that the majority of French people in Marrakesh voted for Le Pen in an election a long time ago.
This is a subject that stirs up social networks and the online press enormously, and at every election there’s the same outrage, “how can you be racist when you live in Morocco” (the nice version) and “you dirty bastards, we’re going to chase you out of our house when we come back” (the version that my politeness forbids me from describing).
These elections have been quite for a month, starting with the results of the European elections. We wrote a lot about it on our French-speaking version, not here, as it is not a concern for our English-speaking readers. Nevertheless, this post is more generic and investigate Moroccan society and bi-nationals, it’s of interest (I hope) even for non-French readers. Most of the links in this post are in French, and won’t be translated ; if you’re interested in following them, Google translate will do the job for a quick understanding.
RN voters may well not have racist motives
The problem is that, over and above his own motives, he is effectively giving a mandate to someone who represents a racist and homophobic party (there have been enough outbursts in recent weeks to prove this). But that doesn’t make him a racist, just someone who has other priorities before the fight against racism. And in particular his overdrawn bank account on the 10th of the month, for which he imagines the RN will provide a solution.
Here are two extracts from fairly long threads on X(ex Twitter) that I urge you to read in full if you can read French.
The first, and longest, is written by someone who doesn’t vote RN, but has friends who do.
I’m resolutely of a working-class left, and I think that the destruction of the French industrial fabric and the resulting end of class consciousness is a disaster that has shifted the working-class vote enormously to the right […] deliberately accelerated by part of the left […] which has worked to find other oppressed figures, placing 1,000 times more emphasis on origin, religion, sexual orientation, in short minorities, than on social class membership. […]
I grew up in a modest area where the vote is currently turbo RN, and I have close ties to areas where the vote is turbo RN, although this was less the case before, and this has concerned me since 2012, so I wanted to understand. […]
The first of my friends to admit to voting RN was called Samir. That obviously got to me […]
Many of them are not racists and have no intention of arming neo-Nazis, as I read from people who readily admit they have never spoken to them. It’s OK that their vote is a problem, but that doesn’t give you the right to say untruths and make them out to be nostalgic for the Third Reich […].
I’ve noticed that more and more people, from a wide variety of backgrounds and origins, are telling me they vote RN or are thinking of doing so.
Emma Palmer on XThe second (still in French) is from a journalist at France Inter, who lumps everyone together as racists, but acknowledges that the motivations may be different.
A thread that links to a post, among others
Having said that, the RN’s success is also rooted in fears of a rise in crime, immigration, incivility and a rejection of French secular culture, which are admittedly disproportionate and amplified by certain media, but which are not so much concerned with the ethnicity of foreign and immigrant populations as with the consequences of their socialisation and socio-economic environment: their attitudes to school, their (perceived) refusal to integrate, their religious ideas, and so on.
[…]They feel abandoned by successive governments, urban elites and the dominant economic model (liberalism, international competition, etc.). And there is also the seduction exerted by a party that has not yet come to power, “that we haven’t tried yet“. These feelings are essentially distinct from racism.Antoine Marie on 'The Conversation'Three different people, all left-wing, who argue that the RN voter is not automatically, necessarily racist.
So why vote Rassemblement National when you live in Morocco among foreigners?
So how do you vote RN without cognitive dissonance when you’re French in Morocco?
Having said that, what are the reasons for a French person of “mononational origin” to vote Rassemblement National when he or she lives in Morocco and is not, a priori, threatened by the economic problems in France?
I know four people here who I’m sure vote RN. And who I’m sure are not racists. We don’t talk about it because we don’t want to get angry, but through discussions I’ve been able to understand quite a lot.
The French in Morocco are also suffering economically
For years now, the situation of French people living abroad has been deteriorating, with the abolition of the minimum old-age pension, the postponement of the retirement age, the difficulties in liquidating their pensions, the reduction in consular credits and benefits, etc.
And his family in France may also suffer. Our French citizen from Morocco is not ‘out of the country’, he has relatives in France, children whom he sends to study and who have to pay high prices for accommodation, …
They also have relatives who need medical treatment and have to wait weeks or months for a doctor’s appointment (in Morocco it’s immediate), and they see, from near and far, many things that are getting worse and for which, in the end, things are better / easier in Morocco.
A rejection of illegal immigration
The French person who votes in Morocco is a legal immigrant. He has applied for a residence permit, and renewed it one year, then two years, then five years later. He respects the law. He pays his taxes.
And he sees in Morocco an illegal immigration that frightens him, the sub-Saharans who try to go to Europe, who try to cross the barriers at Ceuta or whose camps around Ouled Ziane are set on fire.
In short, he is a legalist and has nothing against immigration as long as it is legal.
An attachment to “French culture in France”.
In the same way, our native Frenchman respects Moroccan culture, doesn’t criticise the country, doesn’t get involved in social debates (lunches, abortion) and doesn’t tickle Moroccan red lines and taboos (religion, Western Sahara, royalty).
He expects immigrants in France to do the same. And yes, he may have, “seen from afar”, a distorted view of what’s going on in France, believe in the theories of the great replacement, etc…
An anti-Europe stance that the other major blocs are not responding to
For many people, Europe has a negative image. UK made a Brexit. Personally, living in Morocco after having lived abroad in European countries shows me even more how much, despite all its faults, Europe has been a factor in economic development and has facilitated a large internal market. But for those who dream of a Frexit, no other ‘major’ party can meet their expectations than the Rassemblement National (because let’s be serious, if you want to have an impact, you don’t vote Cheminade that gathers no more than 1 or 2% in his best results!).
Moroccans over there (in France) are not like those here
A friend of mine sent her son to study in France. When he was here, he was “Mélenchon”, which generated a few discussions with his parents! A few months after his arrival in France, he completely changed sides and voted RN (which proves just how permeable the two electorates are). On the subject of
but the Moroccans here, they’re not like in Morocco, they’re real scum! They’re not civic-minded…
There’s no doubt a touch of the shock of a privileged young man in Casablanca who frequented the local bourgeoisie and had never set foot in Lissasfa… but also the reality of a society that is generally more polite and respectful in Morocco.
An opinion shared by some Moroccans:
The RN vote among Franco-Moroccans, between Stockholm syndrome and nationalist priorities
At every election, there are candidates with an immigrant background on far-right lists. Even at their head, like Eric Zemmour! Whether it’s the West Indian Babette de Rozières, the Franco-Moroccan Hanane Mansouri, the LR/RN candidate who came well ahead of the NFP candidate in the first round, and who is copiously insulted, or Anis Daghrir, no doubt originally from Tunisia, who changed his name to Anis Bouvard between 2022 and now, no doubt to fit in better with his RN comrades.
Experience shows that once the election is over, most of them discover the reality of the party and leave on the theme “oh, but I was unwittingly deceived, I didn’t know there were so many racists”. I always wonder about their motives…
And voters, quite simply, from an immigrant background, who vote for Bardella.
A rejection of illegal immigration, again
Even more than French nationals, naturalised Moroccans have often had a hard time obtaining their second nationality. He may have had to queue for hours at the Préfecture. In short, having got through, they expect others to do the same. And he refuses to be made to look bad because of illegal immigrants.
Or he’s a ‘francisé’, a Moroccan bourgeois who was educated in the Mission’s high schools, who continued his studies in France and who doesn’t see himself as having anything in common with all these illegal immigrants…
In Morocco, I’ve already heard tirades against black immigrants that could be put in the mouth of a good-natured Lepéniste. I remember the mental ‘whiteness’ of a taxi driver when I said to him
What you’ve just said about black people is exactly what the RN is saying in France about Moroccans.
Of course, he replied that it wasn’t the same thing…
Racism against other populations
I discovered a long time ago, to my great surprise, that many Moroccans were also racist. Not like “us”, but still. Between ‘internal’ racism (Fassi versus the rest of the world, Arabs and Berbers) and racism towards blacks, immigrants called azzi, former harratines, gnawas, or simply light and dark skinned, Moroccans are no better or worse than the French. The only racism we don’t know here is against ‘bougnoules’ and Muslims (and even then, when you see certain reactions to veiled women who want to "transform our Moroccan traditions", this last point is debatable).
Acceptance of the measures proposed by the RN and implemented in Morocco
A number of measures proposed by the Rassemblement National are being implemented in Morocco, in particular :
- national preference for employment
- the restriction of certain professions to Moroccans (bi-nationals or not)
- a strong police force, to say the least, and a justice system that is not at all lax
Religious and societal values
A few years ago, Frigide Barjot was invited by some French Moroccans, who presumably vote very right-wing, to fight against the contamination of our little girls by gender theory in the Mission’s schools (which are secular, I assure you). On these issues, some Franco-Moroccans share the ‘values’ of the RN, with its rejection of homosexuality, marriage for all, GPA and no doubt euthanasia.
And I’ve seen groups of would-be emigrants explaining that they wanted to go to Morocco because there were no chemtrails or gender theory…
If the party takes one step forward and one step back to reach a wide audience, its voters are not mistaken. The fundamental issue is there (and this no doubt explains Marine Le Pen’s good relations with Mohammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, the Saudi Secretary General of the Islamic World League.
We need look no further for the reasons behind Jordan Bardella’s backtracking on the ban on ritual slaughter.
Nor should we look for any other reason for Reconquête’s ridiculous score than Eric Zemmour’s frontal attacks on the Islamo-leftists, who are not trying to win elections, they want to use them to self-destruct France, without ever making a positive reference to Islam.
We’ve already “never tried it before”
The argument used for voting Rassemblement National was also the one that convinced many Moroccans to vote PJD at the time of the Arab Spring. The Islamists had never come to power and “they” were not corrupt (which is still roughly true: there were far fewer corruption scandals). The experience was not apocalyptic. It was far from the nightmare painted by Nicolas Beau in his book “Quand le Maroc sera islamique”.
Admittedly, the PJD episode was not a great success in terms of government. And above all, their supposed capacity to cause harm was much more limited than that of the RN in France, given the way political power works in Morocco.
But that’s a much more valid argument for a Franco-Moroccan.
Nationalism and the Western Sahara issue
I don’t need to remind you how proud Moroccans are of their culture and their country. This hyper-nationalist attitude finds a natural echo in the theses of the Rassemblement National, basically an alliance of “every man for himself” patriots (the same alliance that allowed Bruno Gollnisch to live for a time in Japan, his wife’s country).
The King once said that a country’s attitude to the moroccanity of Western Sahara was the cornerstone of his diplomacy.
On this aspect, the former presidential majority has a few balls on its feet, from the fluctuating attitude of Emmanuel Macron seeking to rebuild ties with Algeria to the actions of Stéphane Séjourné, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs when he was a Member of the European Parliament (declaration on press freedom, among other things), who did not say much new during his recent visit.
Add to that the deep-seated crises that have separated the two countries, visas and France's attitude of indignation that we didn't want its help just after the earthquake, and Franco-Moroccans who are not on the left will find it hard to vote “Renaissance”.
As for the left, it was weighed down by rumours accusing LFI of supporting the Polisario.
So for the Franco-Moroccan, who has made the Sahara issue the cornerstone of his political choices, the only option left is the Rassemblement National. All the more so since Jordan Bardella recently stated that he would recognise the Moroccan status of the Western Sahara.
If the RN in France is in my country’s interests, I say a resounding Yes.
France is not my country and I don’t give a fuck if it goes to shit, Morocco is, and we can sit down with the devil if it suits us.
Is that clear?
Or
Franco-marocains, franco-marocaines, voter LFI n’est pas une incivilité, ni une faute de discernement, c’est de la Haute Trahison.
Bon vote sauf aux traîtres. https://t.co/zVDumxEp0U— Simon Mohamed Dinia Mekouar ⵣ (@MekoSimo) July 5, 2024
whose profile displays quite a stranger political marmelade
I would add, without getting to the heart of this post, that the compromises of certain hyper-nationalist Moroccans go very far. When the far-right Africanist historian Bernard Lugan has an open forum in Moroccan newspapers to explain that the Sahara is Moroccan, his proven racism shocks no one. Worse still, when Rachid Achachi, a long-time columnist on Luxe Radio, calls for support for Alain Soral, nobody is shocked.
And when asked whether he should be happy about the RN’s victory, his answer is more than ambiguous and sums up very well the position of these hyper-nationalists nicknamed “Moorish”. And yet nobody threatened to expel him from Morocco:
– Good evening Professor, should we be happy about the RN’s victory?
– The only thing we can rejoice about is the implosion of this stateless oligarchic system and the establishment of a sovereignist regime with civilisational roots.
In a recent post, he went even further, endorsing the thesis that “the RN is a party like any other”.
Finally, here’s a screenshot of a Franco-Moroccan who votes RN in France. I have a number of them, both in Morocco and in France, but as it comes from “private” groups, I won’t share it. This sums up all the reasons why so many people are surprised by this vote.
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Detailed figures: the reality of the “RN” vote in Morocco
Percentages are often misleading. 10% of French people in Agadir who put the RN in the lead in the legislative elections is barely a few hundred people. I’ve also discovered that it’s difficult to have an accurate history. The processing of election results for French people abroad is split between two ministries, and the archives are incomplete.
Before 2012 and the creation of constituencies for French nationals living abroad
French citizens can vote by registering on consular lists, for national elections only (presidential elections, European elections and referendums). They can also register with a commune in France; in this case, they can also vote in local and legislative elections, but their vote is counted in mainland France.
To vote in a local commune, they must be physically present, give a proxy or vote by post.
The 2002 presidential elections
It was an earthquake. For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, the Front National overtook the Left, or at least the Socialist Party. With 16.86% of the vote, Jean-Marie Le Pen came second by a narrow margin, behind Jacques Chirac (19.88%) and ahead of Lionel Jospin (16.18%). In the second round, the Republican barrage enabled Jacques Chirac to win 82.2% of the vote.
Not in Morocco.
In the first round, the far right scored 7.9%, including 6.5% for Jean-Marie Le Pen. Lionel Jospin came second with 17.8% and Jacques Chirac came out on top with 41.7% of the vote. In the second round, Jean-Marie Le Pen did not even manage to bring together all the far-right votes and Jacques Chirac obtained almost 93% of the vote.
The 2007 presidential elections
Five years on, the far right has fallen back, with a total of 12.60%, including 10.44% for Jean-Marie Le Pen, which prevented it from reaching the second round. Nicolas Sarkozy, with 31.2% in the first round, won the second round by a wide margin, with 53% of the vote.
Not in Morocco.
In the first round, Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained 2.5% of the vote and Nicolas Sarkozy 38.%. In the second round, Sarkozy obtained “only” 51.8% of the vote.
As of 2012, we know the results by polling station in the 9th constituency.
Our polling stations are Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakesh, Rabat and Tangiers. The vast majority of registered voters are in Casablanca and Rabat, which together account for around 65% of the total.
There are no offices in the far south. When I lived in Ouarzazate, I had to go and vote in Marrakesh, which at the time meant a 5-hour journey each way (whereas when I lived in Germany, I was two hours from my polling station in Düsseldorf, and I thought that was already a long way!)
However, more than ten years later, it’s hard to find this data.
2012 presidential elections
The far right is on the rise. Marine Le Pen obtained 17% of the vote, but only came third behind Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
Not in Morocco.
It garnered just 569 votes (3.3% of the vote) and came a distant 5th behind Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Bayrou.
2012 legislative elections
I wasn’t able to find detailed results by office on an official site, but on a blog I did find this:
Alexandra Piel is a far-right candidate. She therefore came “a long way behind in Marrakesh”. Overall, in the 9th constituency, she only managed 3.58%. The other far-right candidate, Yves Paumier, made 0.5%!
In the second round, Socialist MP Pouria Amirshahi was elected with more than 62% of the vote.
2014 European elections
Coming soon
2017 presidential elections
In 2017, the FN/RN repeated its 2002 breakthrough. Marine Le Pen reached the second round, behind Emmanuel Macron, with 21% of the vote. In the second round, she reached 34% of the vote.
Not in Morocco.
The score in the first round was 4.1% for the whole of Morocco (less than in the 9th constituency), with a maximum in Agadir – already – with 11.4%, representing just 180 votes.
In the second round, she won slightly more votes in Agadir (254), but reached a ceiling of 1,339 votes for the whole of Morocco, representing 3.9% (just over half the result in the 9th constituency).
Legislative elections 2017
Following the dissolution of the National Assembly, legislative elections were held in June 2017. In France, turnout was close to 49% in the first round and 42% in the second round. The RN obtained 13.2% and 8.75% of the vote respectively.
Not in Morocco.
The RN candidate scored a pitiful 149 votes for the whole of Morocco, but only 2%, and lost a large proportion of her electorate in Agadir, where she received just 32 votes. Could this be a personal problem, or the fact that there are so many candidates? Turnout remained higher in Agadir (25.4%) than in Morocco as a whole (21.5%).
European elections 2019
It was a turning point. The list led by Jordan Bardella came out on top with 23.34% of the vote and a turnout of 50%.
Not in Morocco.
The RN score was rather low, with a total of 8% of the vote, down 11 points. Agadir was an exception, with 20% of the vote. However, the 174 votes cast were fewer than in the presidential elections!
Elections présidentielles de 2022
Au premier tour, Marine Le Pen arrive seconde, avec 23% des voix. Eric Zemmour arrive quatrième avec 7% des voix. On peut donc “globaliser” en disant que l’extrême-droite obtient 30% des voix. Au second tour, Marine Le Pen obtient 41% des voix.
Not in Morocco.
Marine Le Pen won just 4.5% of the vote. In fact, she came in behind Eric Zemmour, who received 1,152 votes in the first round.
In the second round, Marine Le Pen obtained only 13.86% of the vote in the 9th constituency. Detailed results by polling station are not available for Agadir, Marrakesh and Rabat.
Legislative elections in 2022 and 2023
In 2022, the Rassemblement National obtained 18.7% in the first round and 17.3% in the second round.
Not in Morocco.
There will be no RN candidate in the second round in 2022, and Ludivine Sordet’s performance in the first round was quite disastrous: with 86 votes, she received 1.1% of the vote in Morocco! And just 5.5% in the 9th constituency. It has to be said that she seems to be a complete unknown…
For the second vote, following the cancellation of the 2022 ballot, there was no RN candidate, only a Reconquête candidate, André Chouk, who received 6% of the vote.
European elections in 2024
As for the last European elections, I refer you to the detailed (French) post on the results. Overall, the RN score was half that obtained in France.
The RN chairmanship of the France-Morocco friendship Parliament group does not bother everyone
Just a few months after the RN won the presidency of the France-Morocco Friendship Group in the Assemblée Nationale, it has caused a stir.
While it came as a shock to many, starting with Karim Ben Cheikh, who refused to take part in the group from now on, there were positive reactions on social networks, with phrases like these:
The RN has always supported Morocco’s territorial integrity and we appreciate that.
Further proof that the RN vote among the French in Morocco is, for many, Franco-Moroccan.
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