Morocco’s left-wing opposition is betting big on pensioners ahead of the country’s upcoming legislative elections. On Tuesday, the Democratic Left Federation and the Unified Socialist Party unveiled the social chapter of their joint electoral platform, built around the slogan « Dignity First, » with retirees and low-income households at its center.
The headline pledge is straightforward: a monthly increase of 2,000 dirhams for retirement pensions, with a guaranteed floor of roughly 3,000 dirhams for the lowest earners. The coalition also wants pensions automatically indexed to inflation and freed entirely from taxation, arguing that rising living costs have eroded the purchasing power of a generation that spent decades contributing to the system.
Widows would be among the biggest beneficiaries. Under current rules, a surviving spouse receives half of the deceased partner’s pension; the alliance’s program would raise that share to 100 percent. It also calls for a binding legal mechanism creating an automatic, periodic sliding scale tied to the price index, coupled with tighter financial and accounting oversight of pension funds, an implicit nod to long-standing concerns over the sustainability of Morocco’s retirement system.
Beyond pensions, the platform tackles direct social assistance. The two parties want to scrap the current means-tested index that excludes a portion of households, a change they say would expand the pool of beneficiaries by about 10 percent. Extra allowances are planned for families living in extreme poverty, school-age children, and children with disabilities.
The numbers attached to the plan are sizeable. The annual budget for direct social support would climb gradually from roughly 29 billion dirhams today to close to 39 billion dirhams by 2031, adding an estimated 30 billion dirhams in costs over the next parliamentary term. The alliance frames this as part of a broader push toward « effective » social coverage for 90 percent of Moroccan workers by 2031, with a minimum pension pegged to the minimum wage.
Whether these commitments survive contact with the ballot box, and later the budget negotiations of any coalition government, remains an open question. Rival parties are already sharpening their own social-spending promises as campaign season heats up.
