Morocco: Government coalition in crisis amid 'nepo babies' bar exam scandal

After a nationwide 'nepo babies' scandal emerged last week, the Moroccan government is in crisis facing calls for exemption from its Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi, the head of a critical party among the cabinet's coalition.

On Sunday night, Abdellatif Ouahbi, Morocco's justice minister and head of Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), appeared on state TV to speak 'the truth' regarding the 'nepotism' scandal, which rocked his ministry after claims emerged of an allegedly 'rigged' written bar exam.

"The children of lawyers and judges are well-prepared and more familiar with the job because they grew up training with their parents," Morocco's minister of justice said in an interview on state TV 2M.

Of more than 70,000 candidates in the bar exam, only 2,081 people passed the exam. Social media users have pointed out that most admitted had the same family name as the minister, renowned Moroccan lawyers or employees in the justice ministry.

Also, one of the admitted was the minister's son. "(…) My son has two bachelors and studied in Canada. (…) his father is rich and paid for his studies in Montreal," the Moroccan minister justified his son's success last week.

وا مي كرشي 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/F5YIzSjSqA

— Salah from 04 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@selh04) January 4, 2023

Fueled by the justice minister's 'classist' statements, the scandal led to several protests during the week, with law graduates and social media users calling for an urgent investigation and Ouahbi's resignation.

In his Sunday interview, the justice minister denied the nepotism allegations, saying he accepted all the requests of reviewing the exam results, "which proved that the results were correct," stressed Ouahbi.

Despite the ongoing scandal, the Moroccan minister decided to announce the dates of oral bar exams, stressing that 'this is a small storm' that will not affect his position in the party or the government.

The organisation of Bar Associations in Morocco (ABAM), which regroups many local bar associations, has supported the minister's decision. The head of ABAM is Abdel Wahid Al-Ansari, the president of the Fes-Meknes Region and a member of the Istiqlal party, which is part of the current government coalition.

Meanwhile, the syndicate of Moroccan lawyers called for the cancellation of the bar exam results, saying the ministry violated the decree of the exam.

"The first violation of the decree of bar exam was embodied in the intervention of the Minister of Justice to raise the number of successful candidates to 2081, after the number in the first official list was around 800 admitted," said the syndicate in a press release.

Ouahbi admitted raising the number of candidates and that the act was aimed to save more young people from employment' he argued in defence of his decision. He did not elaborate further on the procedures his ministry followed to increase the number.

Ouahbi's 'frenemy' and head of the Moroccan government Aziz Akhannouch have yet to speak on the scandal.

The two controversial politicians had a political conflict back in 2021 after Ouahbi accused Akhannouch of using 'illegal money' to win the September 2021 elections.

However, Ouahbi's party, which came second to Akhannouch's rally of the independents' party (RNI) in the election with 87 seats, has decided to join a coalition and put the past behind.

Ouahbi's party controls seven ministries out of 24 in the current government.