NEW PJD LEADER MOVES QUICKLY TO REASSURE

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000688

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/23/2028
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KISL MO
SUBJECT: NEW PJD LEADER MOVES QUICKLY TO REASSURE

REF: STATE 00678

Classified By: Ambassador Thomas Riley for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: New PJD leader Abdelilah Benkirane moved
quickly to reassure the nation, in a July 23 press
conference, that he will not radicalize the Justice and
Development Party (PJD) party. He said his agenda was
economic not religious. Outside observers note his election
as leader of the PJD may be more of a change in style than
substance. The country's top academic expert on Islamic
politics and the leader of Morocco's Jewish community
separately held that view, contrasting Benkirane's
rhetorically confrontational record with the more restrained
mien of his predecessor Othmani. In an unprecedented letter
of congratulations, King Mohammed VI praised the behavior of
the former leader as an exemplar and laid out his expectation
that Benkirane would follow in Othmani's footsteps. These
impressions of continuity appear to be buttressed by the
election of Othmani to the party's number 2 slot and
retention of most of the old leaders in prominent positions.
END SUMMARY


2. (C) On July 23, 2008, Polcouns and Poloff met with Hassan
II University Political Science Professor Mohammed Darif in
Casablanca to discuss the upset victory of Abdelilah
Benkirane as leader of the Justice and Development Party
(PJD) at its national Congress on July 20 (Ref). Darif did
not consider Benkirane to represent a major change in
substance for the PJD though his style is considered to be
more religiously bombastic than his predecessor Saad Edine
Othmani. Half alluding to Benkirane, Darif said that all
politicians in the PJD use religion to mobilize the masses,
but this does not mean that they do not respect the King,
Islam, and the territorial integrity of Morocco.


3. (C) Polcouns later met separately with the Jewish
community's leader, Serge Berdugo, who also is a roving
ambassador for the King. Berdugo echoed Darif's assessment
that the change will be in form, not substance.


4. (C) King Mohammed VI personally sent a letter of
congratulations to Benkirane on his victory, in which he
complimented the service of outgoing PJD Secretary General
Othmani and voiced conviction that Benkirane would "pursue
the same constructive course." He also praised Benkirane's
"patriotism, political wisdom, deep commitment to the values
of the Nation and its choice of democracy as the right path
for the management of public affairs." Further, the King
encouraged Benkirane to put the "supreme interests of the
Nation and the just causes of the citizens above all other
considerations." As icing on the cake, according to the
PJD's own newspaper, King Mohammed VI also called Benkirane
to personally congratulate him.


5. (C) Darif commented that the King's statements were
likely intended to send two messages. The first was to show
political continuity. It demonstrated the King's patriarchal
stewardship over all Moroccans, including politicians, and
also provided an opportunity for the King to signal his
expectations to and of Benkirane within the national
political arena. Darif suggested that the second message was
to publicly contradict the anti-PJD messages of palace
intimate Fouad Ali El-Himma, whose "Movement of All
Democrats" (MTD) has been consistently anti-PJD (note: and
more subtly anti-Istiqlal).


6. (C) Benkirane signaled his acceptance of the King's
prescriptions by holding his first press conference as party
leader declaring "the PJD was not a religious party but a
political party with a religious reference." He said that
the party was open to forming alliances or cooperative
relations with other parties and participating in the
government. Benkirane said that he wanted to focus on
"everyday concerns rather than on a religious agenda,"
elaborating on the need for greater emphasis on economic and
anti-corruption issues.


7. (C) Darif thought that press speculation about a
potential alliance between the PJD and the Socialist Union of
Popular Forces party (USFP) was exaggerated. At best, if the
USFP left the government, it might find itself cooperating in
the opposition with the PJD.


8. (C) Comment: By all accounts, the PJD's Congress was
democratic and transparent, as intended by the 2006 electoral
reform law. Sadly, most parties in Morocco do not replace
their party leaders until they die or nearly so. The PJD
appears to be winning adherents, even women, because it is
less corrupt and more democratic than other parties. The
policy corral drawn around the PJD by the King and the
retention in leadership positions of the pragmatist Othmani
and former Parliament Vice President Lahcen Daoudi support
our interlocutors' conclusion that we may not see a turn for
the worse for the PJD. Benkirane's first official statements
as party chief appear to belie his hard-line reputation, even
allowing for the possibility of greater pragmatism and
engagement with other parties than his predecessor Othmani.
The press conference was the first time that the PJD publicly
defined itself as a political party like any other, thus,
blunting critiques--like the MTD--that the party was Islamist
(i.e., working toward the imposition of Sharia law),and
possibly creating greater maneuver room for the PJD.
Benkirane appears to be bending over backwards to make a good
first impression. Only time will tell if he can sustain this
posture.

End comment.


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Riley