Morocco's Islamist Prime Minister said in an interview with dpa on Wednesday he understands why thousands have protested at the gruesome death of a fish merchant crushed in a garbage truck as he tried to prevent officials destroying his goods.
"The protests happened on a natural scale and there was nothing surprising about them. We understand the reasons for them," Abdel-Ilah Benkiran told dpa by phone from the Moroccan capital Rabat.
The protests on Sunday and Monday were Morocco's largest since pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, which led to constitutional reforms shifting powers from King Mohammed VI to the elected parliament.
Huge crowds took to the streets of al-Hoceima, where 31-year-old Mohcin Fikri met his end on Friday, as well as larger cities including the capital Rabat, Casablanca and Tangiers.
Benkiran said he was glad the protests, which have died down since several officials were referred to prosecutors, "all passed off in a responsible way, preserving security and stability."
Benkiran also accepted that "shortcomings" in Morocco's administration might be responsible for the al-Hoceima incident, which prosecutors say happened after police and fisheries officials caught Fikri transporting half a ton of illegally caught swordfish in unhygienic conditions and ordered its destruction.
"Everybody is aware of the shortcomings in the Moroccan administration," the Islamist leader said, pointing to King Mohammed VI's speech on possible flaws in his address to the parliament.
"We can perhaps say that His Majesty's first and most fundamental instruction to the incoming government was that this task should be at the head of its priorities."
As for the demonstrators who burnt photographs of the prime minister, the Islamist leader was dismissive.
"It's only natural. We are new to electoral politics. The Moroccan people voted for our Justice and Development Party but there are those who reject that result or hold a grudge over it."
Benkiran nevertheless warned against attempts to exploit the incident, in the mainly Berber north of the country, for "regionalist" purposes.
Fikri's death is all the more sensitive because it happened in Morocco's northern Rif region, a stronghold of the Amazigh or Berber ethnic minority where activists complain of marginalization and authorities fear secessionist sentiment.
But Benkiran criticized those who flew the flag of the short-lived independent Rif Republic of the 1920s at the protests, charging that they were an unrepresentative minority.
"Every time something happens, there are those who repeat secessionist slogans," he said, arguing that this isn't the "general feeling," but instead "just some individuals who belong to extremist movements and want to make the Amazigh issue out to be one of discrimination."
As far as the official response to Fikri's death was concerned, Benkiran said, the king had issued his orders. Shortly after the incident, Mohammed VI called for a thorough investigation and despatched officials to visit the dead man’s family.
The 2011 constitutional reforms may have bolstered the role of elected politicians, but, for Benkiran, the final word belongs to the king, who is also officially the religious leader for Morocco's overwhelmingly Muslim majority.
"It may be hard for some people outside Morocco to understand this, but in our country, in addition to his legal and religious position, the king has a deeply rooted place in the hearts and minds of everyone," the premier argued.
"When he does something or says something about an issue, that means that that issue has been settled and our only role in the government is to implement it."
Last month Benkiran was reappointed as prime minister by King Mohammed VI after his Justice and Development Party topped polls with 125 out 395 seats in parliament. He is currently in negotiations with other parties to form a new coalition.
Benkiran said on Wednesday that the conservative Istiqlal [Independence] party, formerly in opposition, and his left-wing partner in the outgoing government, the Party of Progress and Socialism, had already agreed to join in the coalition.
"We still need one more party with at least 20 seats so as to form a majority. There are consultations taking place at the moment with three or four parties, and as soon as one of them takes a decision we will get to work, God willing."
