Addis Ababa – Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco have a “common future in the Grand Maghreb,” said Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, adding that reinvigorating the Maghreb is a “top priority” for Tunisia and that “2012 will be the year of the Maghreb.”
The countries of the region must begin to “dream, actively, of a European-style Maghreb parliament and institutions,” said Tunisian President in an interview broadcasted on Sunday night by Moroccan TV channel “Medi 1 TV.”
Announcing his intention to visit Morocco and Algeria soon after the trip to Libya, the Tunisian president expressed his commitment to the Maghreb. “I consider myself from the Maghreb and I consider Morocco as my own country,” said Marzouki, recalling that he had studied in Tangier and that his father was a political refugee in Morocco in 1956.
“My father was received by late HM King Mohammed V and lived in Tangier and Marrakech. He remarried in Morocco so I have brothers who are Moroccans. Morocco is a country that is mine. We are a Maghreb family. For me, the Maghreb is not just a political reality,” he argued.
As for the “Arab spring,” Merzouki said that there were two slogans in the Arab world: “the people want the end of the regime” started from Tunisia and “the people want reform system” in Morocco.
Tunisian President also said that what matters is to build democratic and transparent regimes.
Regarding the current situation in Tunisia, Marzouki stressed that “everyone is living in difficulty, those who govern as well as those who are governed.”
“Today, Tunisians have women and men who are there to serve them. We must give them time to work. They have no magic wand,” he added.
