Popular Movement (Morocco)

The Popular Movement was founded in 1957 by the Berber tribal chief Mahjoubi Aherdane with help from Abdelkrim al-Khatib who founded later a splinter party (Mouvement populaire démocratique et constitutionnel) that became the Justice and Development Party.^[4] It was initially a rural party with conservative and tribal orientation,^[5] that unconditionally supported the monarchy^[4] and aimed at countering the nationalist Istiqlal Party.^[5] Despite them being socially conservative, the party claimed to be Islamic socialists.^[4][6][7]

They advocated for the distribution of land previously owned by French to tribes and local communities and that communal lands be administrated by communal traditions. They also advocated for the recognition of Berber customary law and a school system where Berber dialects were taught. The Popular Movement was dominated by Berber speakers and had the strongest support from rich peasants and large landowners and was the most active political organisation in the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.^[7] Despite this, it did not have a distinctly Berber agenda and was the major party in the ruling coalition that instituted Arabization in 1965.^[8]

The present party results from a 25 March 2006 merger between the main party which had kept the original name and two splinter parties, the National Popular Movement (Mouvement National Populaire) and the Democratic Union (Union démocratique).^[9][10]

The party is a full member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Dakar Congress in 2003.^[11]

In the parliamentary election held on 27 September 2002, the party won 27 out of the total 325 seats. It improved its standing in the parliamentary election held on 7 September 2007, winning 41 out of 325 seats.^[12]

The party won 32 out of 325 seats in the parliamentary election held in November 2011, becoming the party with the sixth highest number of seats in the parliament.^[13]