Leading Morocco Islamist party is united, official says

A Moroccan minister and leading figure within the Justice and Development Party (JDP), Mustafa Al-Rameid, denied yesterday factional divisions due to the formation of the new coalition government led by his party, Quds Press reported.

Al-Rameid, who is the current human rights minister in the coalition government, said that the party is united and reports of divisions and factionalisation reported in the media was nothing more than “illusions.”

Read: Benkirane vows to continue with reform path

Saying that all the senior members of the JDP are closely united and that speculators were ill-informed about the party’s inner-workings, Al-Rameid told Quds Press:

Those who speak about divisions inside the Justice and Development Party are dreaming as they do not know [former prime minister] Abdelilah Benkirane, or [Prime Minister] Saadeddine Othmani or the team that was assigned to negotiate the coalition government.

Meanwhile, he did not deny that there were differing views among members of his party regarding the sacking of Benkirane as head of the government by King Mohamed VI, but said that what happened was nothing more than tweets that were “exaggerated and reported by the mass media.”

Al-Rameid admitted that his party is “currently experiencing a difficult time” due to the ongoing disagreement among the party’s youth branch about Benkirane’s dismissal, but stressed this issue is being treated by Benkirane himself, in addition to Othmani.

JDP lawmaker Ahmed Al-Dini said that the sacking of Benkirane came at a time when he was giving Moroccans the best of his experience and when he was leading them to solving the country’s crises.