Two relatives of the king Rochdi Chraibi (l.) And Mohamed Mounir El Majidi © AIC Press / Alexandre Dupeyron for JA. The sovereign is surrounded by discreet as influential as advisers. Portraits of some essential and faithful servants. M6 style, fascinating, it is also a picked team, considered the armed wing of the will to reform the Palace. As it lends rich and those who are considered to have "the ear of the King" are, often rightly, sometimes wrongly, perceived with a touch of awe as by the political establishment as the environments of business who know where are the real keys to power in Morocco.
Who are these great servants of the Makhzen? The composition of the team feeds all conversations and rumors of the season diplomatic cocktail Rabat. A name returns consistently: the Mohamed Mounir El Majidi, nicknamed 3M. Private Secretary of the sovereign, it is also responsible for the management of the royal private wealth through the holding company Siger / Ergis, present in all the strategic sectors of the Moroccan economy.
The diplomatic festivals pool
Trained at the American management, pragmatic, rigorous business and symbol of a brilliant generation of technocrats forties, Majidi is also a key player in the opening reputation and modernity of the kingdom. Chairman of the Mawazine music festival in Rabat, he managed to make this event a showcase of Moroccan attractiveness. World stars such as Elton John and British American BB King, as well as icons of the Arab world, such as the Algerian Warda, have agreed to produce it, holding high the Moroccan star flag.
This diplomacy festivals also exceeded all expectations with the now unavoidable appointment of Fez (sacred music) or Essaouira (Gnawa), promoted by another personality of the Palace, the economic advisor André Azoulay, whose book exceptional international addresses is a guarantor of its longevity (he just turned 69 years old). Like its commitment to the cultural dialogue between the West and the East and a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two fundamental Moroccan foreign policy since Hassan II, he was already an economic adviser.
Jewish, André Azoulay, which is a regular target of radical Islamists and Israeli hawks, could always count on the support of the Palace. Among veterans of the previous reign, academic and political analyst Mohamed Moatassim - "the pen" of the king, who writes his speeches - frequent the corridors of Makhzen since 1995 and handles the dialogue between the Palace and the political class.
The circle of quadras
In the first circle also appears Rochdi Chraibi, 47, regarded as the de facto director of the royal cabinet. A lawyer by training, a connoisseur of the complex workings of the Moroccan territorial administration, Chraïbi, who was private secretary Mohammed VI when he was crown prince, also shared the benches of the Royal College with the future king.
Another gray eminence after the Royal College Mohamed Yassine Mansouri, 47 also considered the security of the Kingdom Mr since his appointment in 2005 as head of the Directorate General for Research and Documentation (DGED), secret services exteriors. Affable and discreet, Mansouri helped modernize Moroccan intelligence, hitherto known for their opacity and their brutality. It pays particular attention to developments in the Western Sahara issue and one of its corollaries: relations with African countries. Prior to clean the spy camera bequeathed by Hassan II, he demonstrated his versatility and effectiveness in directing the official Maghreb Arab Press Agency (MAP).
Finally, the cast of the Royal team, even if it is still evolving based on judgments and moods of Her Majesty, would be incomplete without the mention of Fouad Ali El Himma. Routinely described as "the king's friend" by the media, El Himma, 47 too, first served Mohammed VI as Minister for the Interior from 1999 to 2007. In leading the Party and Authenticity Modernity (PAM), El Himma has, in the space of three years, changed the political map of the kingdom, in direct contact with the people and the powerful associations.