When a devastating earthquake hit Morocco on Friday night, killing more than 2,900 people, King Mohammed VI was in Paris, where he spends a great deal of his time.
It took him most of a day to return to his country and make his only public statement so far — a terse communiqué. Later on Saturday, television showed him presiding over a cabinet meeting, but there was no sound.
He visited a hospital on Tuesday and donated blood. But his low visibility and silence, coupled with the government’s response to the earthquake, have been criticized, with some saying officials are paralyzed because they are awaiting authorization for action from the king.
Moroccan officials argue that they are on top of the crisis and will ask for help as they need it, adding that the king was guiding the response from the beginning.
The king, who turned 60 on Aug. 21, is the richest and most powerful person in Morocco. He is constitutionally both head of the armed forces and, controversially in Islam, of religious matters, as the Commander of the Faithful.
As head of state, he oversees a constitutional monarchy, a managed semi-democracy, with real power exercised by advisers and ministers dominated by his high-school friends. But his authorization for action is vital. » | Steven Erlanger, Reporting from Berlin | Tuesday, September 12, 2023
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