{"id":4769,"date":"2026-08-26T17:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/?p=4769"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:02:15","slug":"talbi-alami-faces-the-test-of-responsibility-an-apology-to-his-majesty-the-king-and-resignation-from-the-presidency-of-the-house-of-representatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/talbi-alami-faces-the-test-of-responsibility-an-apology-to-his-majesty-the-king-and-resignation-from-the-presidency-of-the-house-of-representatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Talbi Alami Faces the Test of Responsibility: An Apology to His Majesty the King and Resignation from the Presidency of the House of Representatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

An audio recording referring to the \u201cMinistry of Finance\u201d before the September 23 election results raises a broader question: who holds the keys to the next government \u2014 the ballot boxes or political negotiations?<\/em><\/p>\n

In Morocco, the battle over the next government can begin before the elections themselves. But there is a difference between political parties competing to come first at the ballot box and a senior political figure speaking as though certain ministerial portfolios have already been decided, and certain names can already be ruled out before voters have had their say.<\/p>\n

That is what gives the audio recording attributed to Rachid Talbi Alami a significance that goes well beyond his political dispute with Fouzi Lekjaa.<\/p>\n

The recording, circulated by several Moroccan media outlets on Tuesday, August 25, is presented as an excerpt from remarks made by Talbi Alami during a meeting of the political bureau of the National Rally of Independents (RNI). The Speaker of the House of Representatives criticizes what he considers attempts to recruit parliamentarians and elected officials from his party to the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), before moving to the most sensitive point: the Ministry of Economy and Finance.<\/p>\n

Referring to Fouzi Lekjaa, he is heard saying, in substance: \u201cThe Finance Ministry, by God, he will never see it.\u201d In the same context, he also refers to practices he describes as \u201cintimidation\u201d and \u201cinducement\u201d in dealing with parliamentarians and candidates.<\/p>\n

The issue is not that Talbi Alami disagrees with Lekjaa, nor that he defends his party against a political rival. That is part of normal political competition.<\/p>\n

The problem begins when partisan confrontation turns into talk about the next government as though the distribution of its portfolios had already become an internal matter among political leaders, before voters have delivered their verdict.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Economy and Finance is not a portfolio that any political party can allocate on its own. Article 47 of the Moroccan Constitution provides that the King appoints members of the government on the proposal of the Head of Government. The Head of Government is appointed by the King from the party that comes first in elections to the House of Representatives, based on the election results.<\/p>\n

This is precisely why the phrase \u201cby God, he will never see it\u201d carries such political weight.<\/p>\n

In its partisan context, it may simply be a forceful way of expressing opposition to a particular political figure. But when it comes from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, it can be read differently, because the person speaking is not merely an ordinary party official. He heads a constitutional institution whose position carries an obligation to respect the rules governing the relationship between the institutions of the state.<\/p>\n

This does not mean, legally, that the phrase alone proves that Talbi Alami was claiming a constitutional power he does not possess. Such a conclusion would require more than a single sentence extracted from a recording.<\/p>\n

Politically, however, the statement raises a legitimate question:<\/p>\n

Have some political leaders already begun to treat the next government as the outcome of negotiations between party establishments before it becomes the outcome of an election?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The timing makes that question even more sensitive.<\/p>\n

The recording emerged on August 25, only a few weeks before the legislative elections scheduled for September 23, at a moment when competition between the RNI and PAM has intensified, particularly around the movement of parliamentarians and elected officials between the two parties.<\/p>\n

Fouzi Lekjaa no longer appears only as a figure from the world of sport or as the minister in charge of the Budget. His political engagement within PAM has placed him directly inside the competition leading up to the elections.<\/p>\n

In that context, the reference to the Finance Ministry becomes more significant than a personal dispute.<\/p>\n

It suggests that the internal political debate has moved beyond how to respond to the movement of elected officials and parliamentarians. It now touches on the composition of the next government and on who might enter it \u2014 and who should remain outside it.<\/p>\n

That is where the real political story begins.<\/p>\n

The elections have not yet taken place. We do not know which party will come first, who will lead the next government, what alliances will emerge, or which names will eventually be proposed for ministerial positions.<\/p>\n

All of that comes later, through the constitutional and political processes that follow the vote.<\/p>\n

When ministerial portfolios begin to be discussed with such certainty before those steps have even occurred, the issue is no longer simply about Lekjaa.<\/p>\n

It is about the way politics itself is being practiced.<\/p>\n

The other part of the recording, concerning \u201cintimidation\u201d and \u201cinducement\u201d in dealing with elected officials and candidates, raises an even more serious institutional question if those terms refer to specific acts of pressure or practices that could violate the law.<\/p>\n

Talbi Alami, given his position, has every right to criticize the methods of his political opponents. But if he is referring to concrete facts involving potentially unlawful conduct, the institutional logic would require those facts to be brought before the competent authorities rather than left inside a party meeting or turned into ammunition in an electoral confrontation.<\/p>\n

At this stage, the most important issue remains evidence.<\/p>\n

If the allegations are serious, why not submit the available information to the competent institutions? If, on the other hand, they are simply a forceful political description of what is happening in the electoral arena, why use language carrying such a heavy charge?<\/p>\n

We do not yet have the answer. It would therefore be reckless to turn an allegation into an established fact.<\/p>\n

What can be established is that the recording is circulating, that its contents have been reported, that the speaker holds a major constitutional position, and that the remarks have surfaced at an exceptionally sensitive moment in the electoral calendar.<\/p>\n

Those elements alone are enough to raise the question of political responsibility.<\/p>\n

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is not simply a candidate waiting for the next election. He heads an institution representing the legislative branch. The standard of responsibility expected from him cannot therefore be identical to that applied to an ordinary candidate or party official.<\/p>\n

This is not about asking him to remain silent when his party is attacked, or to surrender his right to defend it. It is about clarifying where partisan responsibility ends and institutional responsibility begins.<\/p>\n

If the recording accurately reflects his remarks, the first political response should therefore be a public clarification.<\/p>\n

What exactly did he mean by the Finance Ministry? Was he expressing a hypothetical party position? And does he actually possess information concerning the practices he described as intimidation and inducement?<\/p>\n

If he does, why has he not submitted that information to the competent authorities?<\/p>\n

Then comes the more difficult question.<\/p>\n

Can the Speaker of the House of Representatives continue to occupy that position without providing a convincing political explanation for remarks made at a party meeting and subsequently brought into the public domain at one of the most sensitive moments of the electoral cycle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resignation from the presidency of the House is not an automatic legal sanction resulting from the recording. Nor can refusing to run in the upcoming elections be presented as a legal consequence of the remarks.<\/p>\n

But both could constitute political and ethical choices if Talbi Alami himself concludes that his statements have damaged the image of the institution he leads.<\/p>\n

That is why the most accurate formulation is not that Talbi Alami is legally obliged to resign, apologize or withdraw from the election.<\/p>\n

The issue is rather that he now faces a political and ethical test that cannot simply be bypassed through silence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An apology, if he considers that his words crossed the limits of political debate, would be a clear political act. Resigning from the presidency of the House would represent the strongest form of political accountability. Withdrawing his candidacy would, in turn, be a personal decision bringing the controversy to an end.<\/p>\n

But before any of these steps, there is a simpler and more urgent one: to explain to Moroccans what he meant when he spoke about a ministry that has not yet been allocated, a government that has not yet been formed and an election whose results are not yet known.<\/p>\n

Because the real problem in this affair is not that Talbi Alami does not want to see Fouzi Lekjaa become Minister of Finance.<\/p>\n

Politicians have the right to oppose one another, compete and even politically reject certain names. That is part of the normal rules of political competition.<\/p>\n

What is troubling is the impression that the next government could already be discussed within political establishments as though its principal keys were already being distributed, with the ballot box reduced to a later stage in the process.<\/p>\n

At that point, the recording becomes larger than Talbi Alami and larger than Lekjaa.<\/p>\n

It places Moroccan politics before a simple but consequential question:<\/p>\n

Is it the election that opens the door to the next government, or are the keys to that door already being distributed before voters even reach the ballot boxes?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An audio recording referring to the \u201cMinistry of Finance\u201d before the September 23 election results raises a broader question: who holds the keys to the next government \u2014 the ballot boxes or political negotiations? In Morocco, the battle over the next government can begin before the elections themselves. But there is a difference between political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","category-the-maghreb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4771,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions\/4771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}