Morocco’s youth take Gen Z protest demands to the polls

Rabat, Morocco – Nearly a year ago, environmental entrepreneur Hamza El Kharroubi was protesting in the streets. This week, the 28-year-old is campaigning for a seat in parliament.

Doing political canvassing in Tetouan, El Kharroubi says he is cautiously optimistic that more young Moroccans will win seats in parliament this year.

He founded the Environment and Sustainability Party, seeking to channel growing youth engagement into formal politics.

“The previous protests by Gen Z have sparked more youth engagement in political parties. We expect this year to have exceptional participation from youth, both in voting and campaigning,” he told Al Jazeera English.

The demonstrations came nearly a year before Wednesday’s parliamentary election.

The nationwide demonstrations began on September 27, 2025, after anger over public healthcare, education, jobs and living conditions spread beyond earlier protests in Agadir.

The unrest followed the deaths of eight women after Caesarean deliveries at a public hospital in the southern city, which became a flashpoint for wider grievances over public services.

A leaderless movement calling itself GenZ 212 mobilised largely online through platforms including Discord, TikTok and Instagram, demanding better public healthcare and education, more job opportunities, and an end to corruption and what protesters saw as misplaced public spending.

At least three people were killed during the unrest in October 2025.

The protests highlighted a challenge for Wednesday’s parliamentary election: many young people who took to the streets to demand change remain disengaged from formal politics.

More than 15.8 million people are registered to vote in the September 23 election, which will determine all 395 seats in Morocco’s House of Representatives. But only about four percent of registered voters are aged between 18 and 24, according to figures based on the electoral rolls finalised in July.

By contrast, people aged 60 and above make up more than 29 percent of the electorate, while those aged 35 to 44 account for 21 percent. In the 2021 election, turnout was just over 50 percent.

For Az-el Arab Hilmi, 32, who works with the secretariat of the Federation of the Democratic Left (FGD) in Tifelt, the lesson of the Gen Z protests is that young people are no longer willing to settle for “traditional political discourse or general promises”.

“There is a generation that wants to see tangible results in its daily life: good education, public healthcare that preserves dignity, real job opportunities and fairness in the distribution of opportunities,” Hilmi told Al Jazeera English between campaign events in Tifelt.

But Hilmi says political parties cannot wait for election campaigns to respond to those concerns.

“For me, this is the politics worth betting on: giving young people not just a place in the front rows during campaigns, but a real place in the debate, in decision-making and in taking responsibility,” he said.

Hilmi’s own involvement in politics began in 2016, when he joined the FGD after being drawn to a parliamentary campaign by Omar Balafrej, then one of the party’s prominent figures.

“What struck me was not only the campaign discourse, but the way Balafrej spoke in simple, direct language and presented himself as a politician who could be held accountable, not as someone distant from citizens,” Hilmi said.

Balafrej won a Rabat seat that year and did not run again in 2021. In October, GenZ 212, a movement with no ties to political parties, held an open discussion with him on its Discord server about democracy, political responsibility and the role of young people in political change. The group described Balafrej as a supporter of its youth movement and peaceful activism.

Moubarak Toumi, 18, who joined the Socialist Union of Popular Forces’ regional secretariat in Casablanca-Settat three years ago, sees the distance between young Moroccans and politics as partly inherited.

“A common piece of advice passed down from elders was to ‘walk close to the wall’, to keep a low profile, avoid trouble, and ensure stability in daily life,” said Toumi. That mindset persisted, he said, alongside notions such as the “200-dirham mentality”, a phrase tied to the cash sometimes handed to voters.

“Today, however, we must renew our thinking and engage more actively to build a better future,” he continued.

Toumi attributes disengagement in part to frustration over “unmet promises on healthcare, education and employment despite massive budgets”.

He sees joining political parties as one way of responding to those concerns.

Morocco’s youth unemployment remains a persistent economic problem. In 2025, the official unemployment rate was 13 percent, rising to 37.2 percent among people aged 15 to 24, according to the High Commission for Planning.

The election is also a test of what can be achieved through formal politics. Morocco’s political system gives the monarchy a central institutional role, while elected governments are responsible for public policy and legislation.

For Hilmi, that means young voters should distinguish between what political parties can promise and what they can realistically deliver.

“No party can fix every problem as soon as it reaches a council or a position of responsibility, but we can expect something essential from it: that it commits to what it said, explains to people what it can and cannot do, and practises politics responsibly and transparently,” he said.

A vote, in his view, should instead begin a relationship between citizens and their representatives, one in which young people continue to “monitor, ask, criticise and demand accountability”.

“The election is not a blank cheque,” he noted.