In an editorial, The Guardian argues that Morocco's parliamentary election last week laid bare an alarming loss of faith in politics among young people, a year after mass protests called for a change of political priorities. Generation Z abstained in large numbers from the poll, the paper says.
The editorial points to young migrants swimming in large numbers from Moroccan waters toward Ceuta, the Spanish exclave, as a sign of the frustration felt by a generation. Moroccans aged 15 to 30 make up a third of the population, and more than a third of that group is jobless. With few opportunities at home, young men especially are driven to take enormous risks to reach the European Union, according to the paper. More than 100 people died during that attempted crossing, most of them by drowning.
The Guardian writes that an adequate domestic answer to this generational challenge remains a long way off, judging by the election result. Democratising reforms were introduced into Morocco's monarchical system after the Arab spring, yet roughly a decade and a half later, the vote exposed how far trust in politics has collapsed among the young, the editorial says.
