Istiqlal Party

History

Background

The 1930 Berber Dahir which established separate judicial systems for Arabs and Berbers in Morocco functioned as a catalyst for the formation of the Moroccan nationalist movement. In response to the Dahir, nationalists like Ahmed Balafrej and Allal al-Fassi began to coordinate. In August 1930, activists from Salé, Rabat, Tetouan and Fes formed the Zawiya a steering committee composed of the most important nationalist leaders. There was also a larger group called the Taifa or the "Outer Circle". Another organisation that formed from the protest movement against the Dahir was the Moroccan Action Committee (French: Comité d'Action Marocaine; CAM) also known as the National Action Bloc (Arabic: كتلة العمل الوطني, romanized: Kutlat al-ʿAmal al-Waṭanī; or the Kutla). The Kutla reached 6500 members before it disbanded in 1937. Its president was Allal al-Fassi and its secretary was Mohammed Hassan Ouazzani. The Kutla published the Plan of Reforms (French: Plan de Réformes marocaines) in 1934 in both Arabic and French which only sought reform and the restoring of confidence in the aims of the 1912 Treaty of Fes rather than outright independence. After the nationalist movement began to split in 1937, the Kutla was succeeded by the National Party (Ḥizb al-Waṭanī) which al-Fassi co-led.

Foundation

The Istiqlal Party was founded by former members of the Moroccan Action Committee on 10 December 1943. The party chose Ahmed Balafrej as its head and Allal al-Fassi in the "purely honorary" role of zaʿīm of the Istiqlal. On 11 January 1944, they published their Independence Manifesto which called for "the independence of Morocco in its national entirety under the aegis of His Majesty Sidi Muhammad Bin Yusuf" and a democratic constitutional government that guaranteed the rights of "all elements in society". The manifesto also made other demands: Muhammad V negotiating independence, Morocco signing the Atlantic Charter and taking part in the peace conference. It had 56, 58 or 59 signatories including figures like Ahmed Belafrej, Mehdi Ben Barka and Abderrahmane Youssoufi. The only female signatory was Malika al-Fassi.

The Istiqlal held Arab nationalist views and sought to incorporate Berbers into a larger Moroccan national identity based in Arabism and Islam. Its nationalism was bourgeois and opposed to traditional institutions. The party originally represented an amalgam of a small and long-standing national conservative bourgeoise made of merchant families and religious scholars from Fes and a middle class made up of groups like teachers and doctors. The Istiqlal was made up of a coalition of different political tendencies. Despite its myriad of influences, the Istiqlal did not appeal to all Moroccans. For example, it was seen with suspicion by Sufi orders due to the Istiqlal's Salafism and Berber tribal leaders and members due to its Pan-Arabist rhetoric. The Istiqlal later expanded to include a working class population represented through the Moroccan Workers' Union (UMT). It worked hard to expand its base to include groups like the urban working class but failed to find a lot of appeal in rural areas. It functioned as the main political force struggling for the independence of Morocco. The initial goal stated in their manifesto was the independence from France “within the framework of a constitutional-democratic monarchy”.

The establishment of the Istiqlal reflected an ideological shift in the movement from reform to independence and a transition to a mass party format that included broad parts of the Moroccan population. Groups that preceded the Istiqlal like the Taifa, Zawiya and the Kutla only made efforts to reform the protectorate rather than demand full independence. Protectorate officials in writings from 1944 acknowledged that "the ideas of nation and independence are henceforth commonly acknowledged". Calls for both reform and independence did persist until formal independence. According to al-Fassi, the shift from reform to independence was influenced by several factors including "the impact of the War, the Atlantic Charter, the Allied landings in North Africa, and the declaration of independence of Syria and Lebanon".

Independence movement

The sultan received the Independence Manifesto and approved it before it was sent to the secretary general. The manifesto was also presented to the British and American consulates in Rabat. The French reacted to the manifesto with hostility leading to the Istiqlal clarifying that they did not want to jeopardize the war effort and were against violence. There were peaceful demonstrations of support for the Istiqlal from Moroccans in the main cities. Charles de Gaulle reinstated the protectorate after WW2 ended and the manifesto was ignored which enraged previously apolitical Moroccans. The French also arrested some nationalist figures like Ahmed Belafrej and Mohamed Lyazidi accusing them of collaborating with the Axis. In response to these arrests, there was demonstrations, violence and more arrests showing that the Manifesto achieved its goal of rousing the Moroccan public. The French quelled these demonstrations using Senegalese Tirailleurs who were resented in Morocco particularly due to racism. As a result of these events, Berbers became closer to the nationalist cause and the sultan became more outspoken. Since the Istiqlal became deprived of its leadership as a result of the arrests, they had to go to younger militants to reorganise the party and campaign to win international support.

In 1947, Allal al-Fassi and other nationalist leaders returned to Morocco from exile. This period of exile increased their legitimacy as representatives of the nation and their return was met with huge banquets and parades in Fes and Rabat and helped expand the membership of his organisation. After this return from exile, al-Fassi became leader of Istiqlal and founded the newspaper Al-Alam. However, he soon went into self-exile in Cairo after clashes with the Istiqlal leadership.

During this period, the nationalists of the Istiqlal contributed to building up Sultan Mohammed V's image as the "essence of Morocco's independence hopes". His controversial exile that was supported the pro-French pasha of Marrakesh and grand caid Thami al-Glaoui further reinforced his image to the point he became a martyr. Some even attributed to him supernatural exiles. The Istiqlal were outraged by his exile and they depicted the restoration of the sultan as a religious duty. The Istiqlal critiqued the French government claiming that the deposition of the sultan violated Morocco’s sovereignty. Furthermore, they directed their anger against Thami al-Glaoui who they deemed a traitor. In an event before the Sultan's exile, al-Glaoui accused the sultan of being a communist and atheist labelling him as the "Sultan of the Istiqlal" rather than of Morocco.

Post-independence tensions 1956–1959

After independence, the Istiqlal were the largest party in the Moroccan majlis. However, the party moved into opposition against the monarchy, which had asserted itself as the country's main political actor. It had to overcome some obstacles since the party, which had just achieved their common goal, was prone to fragmentation. There was a movement within the Istiqlal Party to unite Muslims and Jews called al-Wifaq (الوفاق), with prominent Jewish figures such as Armand Asoulin, David Azoulay, Marc Sabbagh, Joe Ohana, and Albert Aflalo. Allal al-Fassi noted that two main forces existed in post independence Morocco:

There are only three powers in Morocco: the first is the Istiqlal, the second power is that of the Army of Liberation and the third is that of the palace. And if we consider that the Army of Liberation derives its strength from the Party and belongs to it, there are really only two powers: Istiqlal and the Palace or the throne.

Between 1947 and 1956, the Istiqlal went through a period of significant expansion. In 1944, party membership was estimated at three thousand later expanding to ten thousand in 1947 and after 1952, one hundred thousand. In the 50s, it eventually reached two hundred and fifty thousand members and by the early months of Moroccan independence, it reached 1.6 million members. According to the scholar Douglas Ashford, the Istiqlal had between 1.6 and 2 million members in the late 1950s with approximately 250,000 being "active" and "well-informed". The Istiqlal were such a powerful and popular force that in the 1950s, they were often referred to simply as "the party" (Arabic: الحزب, romanized: al-ḥizb). At this time, 90% of Moroccans either were members of the Istiqlal or sympathised with it. After independence, al-Fassi was appointed secretary-general and later president for life of the Istiqlal.

Allal al-Fassi was the first to put forward the idea of Greater Morocco and he presented a map of it in the Istiqlal newspaper Al-Alam in July 1956. He believed Moroccan independence was incomplete without the territories of Greater Morocco.

During the period after independence, the Istiqlal sought to create a homogenous i.e. all-Istiqlal government. This was explicitly stated in their 1956 National Council resolution: “a government of national union is not compatible with the delicate phase that Morocco is going through”. The Istiqlal viewed themselves as the main force that led to the independence of the country. Part of the reason for their mobilisation campaign for the return of the Sultan after his exile was due to their limited reach outside urban areas. They sought to use the monarch's traditional and religious forms of symbolic capital that they lacked and use the monarch to help dominate the post-independence political field and state apparatus. At minimum, the Istiqlal advocated that they be consulted on the appointment of ministers and optimally have an Istiqlal prime minister in charge. Additionally, they advocated for ministers to be granted full responsibility for executing the programs of their departments and that the prime minister be granted effective control over the implementation of government policies.

After the split 1959–2016

The prime minister Ibrahim was sacked in May 1960 and Mohammed V put himself as prime minister with Crown Prince Hassan as his deputy. The government was staffed with independents loyal to the King and 'tame' members of the Istiqlal. In that same month, Morocco held its first municipal elections where Istiqlal received the most votes: 40% compared to the UNFP's 23% and the MP's 7%.

In February 1961, the king Mohammed V died and was succeeded by his son Hassan II. He was less interested than his father in developing parliamentary institutions. Calling for a show of "national unity", the Istiqlal and its leader, Allal al-Fassi, gave their support to the new monarch and in return Hassan II devised a new constitution which al-Fassi had demanded. A new government involving both Ahmed Balafrej and al-Fassi was formed in 1962 and simultaneously issued a provisional constitution: a "Fundamental Law". While this did address some of the issues put forward by the Istiqlal like the Arab and Islamic character of the nation as well as the need to reclaim Morocco's "historic territories", it did nothing to alter the balance of power in favour of a representative or democratic government but instead exacerbated absolutism. A new constitution was proclaimed on 18 November 1962. Instead of using the constitutive council his father established, he instead had a clique of loyalists draft it in private. This meant it was not done democratically and as a result was largely written with the monarchy's interests in mind. The constitution was supported by the MP and cynically by the Istiqlal. The parties of the left including the UNFP boycotted it but despite all this it was approved by 85% of the population in a referendum. Not all of al-Fassi's nationalist proposals were put in the constitution. For example, al-Fassi proposed that the phrase "Arab kingdom" be added but the king rejected it. Despite the constitution not being ideal, the Istiqlal were willing to support it for a number of reasons. For one, the Istiqlal hoped to position themselves as quasi-loyal to the monarchy to get rid of their competitor: the UNFP. For them, how the elaboration of the constitution was unimportant compared to the actual contents of the constitution and whether it was line with their aspirations for the Moroccan nation. What they saw as fundamental to the nation was "(1) Islam, (2) territorial integrity, (3) the Arabic language, and (4) the constitutional monarchy". Furthermore, the Istiqlal sought to achieve one of the original demands of their party when they were established which was the establishment of a constitution whatever its contents.

Throughout the 1960s, the Istiqlal were part of the political opposition against the government of Hassan II. Despite being a monarchist, Allal al-Fassi, who led the party at the time, opposed the growing authoritarianism of Hassan and did not accept Hassan II's slow and pragmatic repossession of the territories considered part of "Greater Morocco".

Development since 2016

In 2016, Istiqlal won 46 seats in parliamentary elections, a loss of 14 seats. The party joined the opposition.

Istiqlal is a member of the Centrist Democrat International and International Democracy Union, and an associate member of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.

On October 7, 2017, Nizar Baraka was elected Secretary-General of the Istiqlal party, by 924 votes against 230 votes for his rival and outgoing secretary-general Hamid Chabat. King Mohammed VI expressed his congratulations to the new Istiqlal Party leader for the confidence placed in him by the members of the party’s national council.

The Istiqlal party won 81 seats in the 2021 parliamentary election, an increase of 35 seats since the last election, thus remaining the third largest party in the kingdom.

Ideology

The Istiqlal pride themselves on having a distinct ideology, rooted in their historical traditions, which they refer to as Istiqlalism. The party's ideological line endorses a form of egalitarianism distinct from the socialist or liberal system of thought. For Istiqlal party leaders, egalitarianism is a nationalist and reformist ideology flexible enough to adapt to the conditions of a country. They advocate an end goal of a modern and authentic Islamic egalitarian society. Their vision for Islam which advocates for serious engagement with modernity is rooted in reformist Salafism. The party currently has a reformist attitude while only supporting the king on a few issues and emphasising the need for equal rights for all Moroccans and better standards of living.

The historical Istiqlal was made up of multiple political tendencies. According to the historian Susan Gilson Miller, the ideology of the Istiqlal at this time was a mix of ideas including "democratic constitutionalism, Egyptian reformism, Islamic teachings, nineteenth century progressivism, and Third World anticolonialism, all broadly construed". The Istiqlal's ideology had its roots in Salafism and many of its early leaders were from the old ulama from the Qarawiyyin in Fes.

Leadership

Ahmed Balafrej (1943–1960)

Allal El Fassi (1960–1974)

M'hamed Boucetta (1974–1998)

Abbas El Fassi (1998–2012)

Hamid Chabat (2012–2017)

Nizar Baraka (2017–present)

Electoral performance