Morocco’s “GenZ212” Struggles
Morocco’s “GenZ212” Struggles: Fighting for Development and Against the Legacy of Neoliberal Policies
Since September 27, 2025, Morocco has been witnessing large-scale, ongoing youth protests under the banner “GenZ212.” The movement calls for better social policies, particularly in healthcare and education, and for an end to corruption. What sets this new wave of activism apart is its horizontal structure and its creative modes of communication. This article explores the social and political contexts that gave rise to the movement, as well as the main features that define it.
The youth mobilization began with small discussions on a Discord server, a social media platform originally designed for gaming communities, weeks before the protests took to the streets. Much of the conversation focused on Morocco’s most problematic sectors: health and education, as well as unemployment and corruption, which participants viewed as major obstacles to the country’s future.
The moderators of the Discord server hosted a series of podcast discussions featuring journalists, content creators, and independent activists. The space was opened to a large number of young people who freely shared their opinions and suggestions. This created a democratic public sphere that quickly attracted tens of thousands of members, where constructive and responsible dialogue became the foundation for real-world mobilization initiatives.
By September 27, peaceful protestants under the “GenZ212” banner began taking to the streets of several Moroccan cities: Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Tetouan, Tangier, Meknes, Marrakech, among others. However, security forces responded with mass arrests, deploying police and auxiliary units heavily across areas where protests were announced. They pursued and detained large numbers of young protestants and supporters of the movement, including prominent members of: the Democratic Path Workers’ Youth, the Democratic Left Youth, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, the National Education Union – Democratic Orientation, and the National Union of Moroccan Students (Progressive Left Student faction and Progressive Radical Student faction).
Many detainees were released after official reports were filed, but others remained in police custody and were later brought before the judiciary, which decided to prosecute some of them while granting provisional release. Bail amounts ranged between 3,000 dirhams (approximately €300) and 5,000 dirhams (approximately €500).
These mass arrests can be explained by the security apparatus’s desire to identify the young people involved, especially since the Discord server hosting the discussions included tens of thousands of users operating under pseudonyms and avatars. On another level, it appears that the authorities also sought to assert their power in the streets in response to what they considered calls from “unknown entities” to organize “unauthorized protests.”
Nevertheless, this blatant and systematic violation of the rights to expression, assembly, and organization revealed a sharp decline in the already narrow democratic space. The third strategic bet made by political decision-makers was clearly to quell the movement at its inception and prevent it from spreading.
Although the movement consistently emphasized its peaceful nature and urged protesters to avoid violence and disorder, the atmosphere surrounding the mobilization, marked by arrests and the use of force by the authorities, created a highly tense environment. As a result, some demonstrations lost their peaceful character, and violent incidents erupted in several areas, including Oujda, Salé, Temara, Inzegane Aït Melloul, and Marrakech.
Three people were shot dead in the Lqliâa area by the Royal Gendarmerie, which the judicial authorities said had responded to an attempt to storm a gendarmerie post and seize ammunition and service weapons. However, the investigation remains open, amid human rights and political demands to uncover the truth.
Public sympathy for the movement has been one of the main pillars of its endurance, especially after the arrests of peaceful protesters. However, the outbreak of violence put this sympathy to the test, coinciding with the start of smear campaigns on social media and certain media outlets. Despite this, the movement’s youth managed to maintain their presence in the streets, eventually forcing the security authorities to back down and allow demonstrations as long as they remained nonviolent.
What stood out most was the silence of political decision-makers and the government during the first days of the protests. Their absence left the security forces and the Ministry of Interior directly confronting the street without political backing, which in turn sparked calls to dismiss Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit and hold him responsible for the events.
The movement quickly found itself at the center of Morocco’s political scene, which required it to clarify its demands and agenda. It soon developed a list of demands addressed directly to the monarchy, the most prominent of which were: reforming the education and health sectors, dismissing and holding the government accountable, and releasing the detainees.
Unlike the early days of the protests, the government eventually broke its silence and intensified its presence in state media in an attempt to contain public anger and counter the youth’s narrative. It also expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue, though only “within institutional frameworks”.
The name “GenZ212” refers to the generation born between 1997 and 2012 — young people who grew up in a digital environment with broad access to the internet, electronic devices, social media platforms, and vast amounts of knowledge. This generation is also characterized by its focus on efficiency and quick results. The number “212” represents Morocco’s international dialing code, underscoring the movement’s national identity. Nevertheless, the group insists that its demands and mobilization go beyond a single generation, encompassing all Moroccans.
Globally, this dynamic is part of a broader wave of protests also dubbed “GenZ,” which have emerged in countries such as Nepal, Peru, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Kenya. These movements share common demands centered on social justice, anti-corruption efforts, and greater transparency. Together, they reflect a worldwide youth-driven trend pushing back against the legacy of neoliberal policies in the Global South — policies marked by structural adjustment programs, privatization, and the rollback of social support systems.
Reforming Health and Education and Fighting Corruption
Morocco has faced longstanding crises in both the education and healthcare sectors, which have been central to the youth protests. According to a study published in August 2025, Morocco ranked 110th out of 182 countries in 2022 on the Social Justice Education Index. It also ranked 64th out of 72 countries included in the Global Education Index 2025. Despite some progress over recent decades, the country still struggles with numerous challenges, including regional and social disparities, particularly in mountainous and inland areas, as noted by the High Commission for Planning (an official government institution).
The education workforce, a key actor in the schooling system, has faced major challenges in its relationship with the authorities. Over the past decade, the age limit for entering the teaching profession was reduced to 30 years, and a contract-based employment system replaced permanent hiring for teachers — a policy that sparked a long-standing protest movement against what was perceived as a neoliberal measure. During the last academic year, teachers also staged significant protests against a new system regulating teachers’ status, again shaped by neoliberal principles. The demonstrations ended only after difficult negotiations, yielding important gains, including system revisions and wage increases. These strikes highlighted the intense social discontent surrounding the sector.
The healthcare sector has also been a source of persistent public anger. Just days before the GenZ212 mobilization, protests erupted in Agadir — the hometown of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch — in response to deaths at Hassan II Public Hospital among mothers and newborns. Protestants chanted slogans demanding priority for the health sector over the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal.
For young people, there is a stark contradiction between the state’s ability to build or renovate football stadiums at global standards and at high speed, while failing to achieve similar improvements for healthcare institutions, even as the private sector enjoys significant privileges.
Scenes of patients being carried on shoulders to hospitals are repeatedly witnessed by citizens, a situation that is no longer acceptable to the new generation.
According to the Nambeo Healthcare Index 2025, Morocco ranks 94th out of 99 countries. The country is also experiencing a severe brain drain of healthcare professionals to foreign countries. For example, former Minister of Higher Education Abdelatif Miraoui attempted to restrict the emigration of medical school graduates, yet he himself left the government and moved to France to teach at a foreign institution, an action that the youth perceive as one face of government hypocrisy.
Since December 2023, Moroccan universities have witnessed the longest student strike in the country’s history, lasting 11 months, when students of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry opposed the reduction of the study period from seven to six years. This reform, also seen as neoliberal in nature, was justified under the slogans “saving time” and “reducing expenses.” These protests also reflected the general mood brewing among young people.
Although Morocco has decided to expand healthcare coverage and develop infrastructure in the sector, including building new medical schools and establishing university hospitals across all regionsn, these efforts have faced numerous setbacks and have not yet translated into tangible improvements for citizens, as acknowledged by the government itself.
Morocco loses an estimated 3.5 to 6 percent of its GDP annually due to corruption, amounting to roughly MAD 50 billion (around €4.7 billion), according to Mohamed Bachir Rachidi, who served as head of the National Authority for Integrity, Prevention, and Fight Against Corruption in 2024. Over recent years, Morocco’s ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index has declined, placing it 99th out of 180 countries in 2024, according to Transparency International.
At the same time, accusations of conflicts of interest have intensified against members of the current government.
“The elephant in the room”
While the demands of the GenZ212 movement focus on health, education, and corruption, their grievances also relate to development and employment. A recent report by the Central Bank of Morocco found that youth unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds reached 47 percent, whereas overall unemployment in Morocco, according to the 2024 Population and Housing Census conducted by the High Commission for Planning, stood at 21.3 percent, revealing a deeply troubled social reality. Similarly, female labor force participation has either stagnated or declined, as noted in a World Bank report dated October 7, 2025.
Official figures indicate that around 1.5 million young Moroccans aged 15–24 are neither employed nor in school or any training programs, highlighting the staggering scale of youth exclusion from social structures.
The so-called “New Development Model”, a strategic plan for 2021–2025 prepared by a royal-appointed committee and promoted with significant official publicity, promised a growth rate of up to six percent, a figure projected to help Morocco tackle unemployment and achieve a developmental take-off. However, many Moroccan economic experts have viewed this pledge with skepticism and disbelief.
Morocco’s real GDP growth slowed to 3.2 percent in 2024, down from 3.4 percent in 2023, according to the World Bank, which expects the country to achieve 4.4 percent growth in the current year due to a recovery in agriculture, tourism, and construction. “Investment has also become a key driver of growth, supported by public resources and rising foreign direct investment flows, as the country prepares to host two major football events: the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup.”
However, even the most optimistic studies warn that the sectoral recovery linked to preparations for these major sporting events could quickly turn into a “temporary bubble,” leaving a large segment of the workforce without employment.
In recent years, Morocco has faced numerous crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged droughts, rising inflation, and the destructive Al Haouz earthquake. Yet these events alone do not explain the “permanent crisis” the country faces.
The core issues are linked to the state’s strategic political choices, based on adherence to the international division of labor, dependence on foreign powers, and the absence of a domestic wealth-generating economic system. Instead, the country largely relies on service sectors, low value-added extractive activities, foreign investment focused on cheap labor and lax regulations, and an agriculture sector severely affected by repeated droughts, worsened by policies that deplete water resources year after year. Neoliberal policies have further deepened class inequalities and weakened key social sectors. In other words, the problem revolves around the absence of a coherent national development model.
Against this backdrop, current social demands are fueled by the loss of credibility of promises of development and prosperity, amid concentrated wealth, widespread unemployment and marginalization, rising prices, social disparities, and a simultaneous closing of public space and shrinking of freedoms.
A New State of Affairs
The GenZ212 movement maintains a clear distance from political parties and trade unions, even holding them responsible for the current state of affairs. This approach, however, comes with significant challenges. The weakened condition of political parties today is the result of a long process of fragmentation of the political scene and the marginalization of independent political and civil forces. Consequently, trade unions, which needed to be dismantled to implement neoliberal policies since the early 1990s, have also been weakened.
Historically, the state has not negotiated with unstructured forces, no matter how strong. The Hirak Rif movement, a series of mobilizations that took place in Morocco starting in 2016, is a telling example. In this context, the youth movement’s insistence on remaining unstructured, without leadership or formal representation exposes it to risks of fragmentation, co-optation, or suppression over time.
GenZ212 also evokes memories of the February 20 youth movement, which emerged during the Arab Spring at the beginning of the last decade. Although the contexts of the two movements differ, they share common traits: a loss of trust in the state and institutions, anger at social conditions, and a strong enthusiasm for change and progress. This energy could have a profound impact on Morocco’s future if harnessed positively, despite political centers sending signals that suggest otherwise.
It is difficult to understand this young movement without situating it in the context of recent activist struggles in the country. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the government tried to close public spaces, leading to a noticeable decline in activist activity. However, protests gradually resurfaced through medical students’ campaigns and teachers’ mobilizations. In 2020, authorities blocked protests against the normalization agreement between Morocco and Israel, but the events of October 7, 2023, triggered a large wave of public demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, revitalizing street activism in Morocco and providing an unprecedented opportunity for the opposition to rebuild its ranks.
This situation has coincided with a new state of affairs that has allowed social protests to return to the streets, from demonstrations over summer water shortages to calls from marginalized regions for development and better connectivity, as seen in the struggles of the Aït Bouguemez area.
The accumulated frustrations stemming from growing public anger toward the state’s domestic and foreign policies have created conditions ripe for the emergence of such a movement.
Indeed, this new youth-led movement has generated a renewed appetite for politics and brought several pressing issues back to the forefront. However, the disconnect between opposition and democratic forces on the one hand, and the youth movement on the other, deprives the latter of the guidance and momentum it critically needs. Without such support, it risks isolation and eventual fragmentation.
It is too early to predict where the “GenZ212” movement in Morocco is heading, but it already stands as one of the clearest signs of a looming social eruption, should unemployment, marginalization, and democratic stagnation persist.
