Report. The song of the “dove” by Aziz Akhannouch, now former head of the RNI

It is 5:56 p.m. on Saturday, February 7, 2026, at the Mohammed VI Exhibition Park in El Jadida, and for the last time, Aziz Akhannouch has spoken as president of the National Rally of Independents (RNI).

In the 2,500‑seat hall requisitioned for the plenary sessions of the party’s extraordinary congress that day, his entrance—two hours earlier—was met with resounding applause.

He concluded his 50‑minute speech—marking the end of his decade at the helm of the country’s leading political force—to enthusiastic cheers. This time, however, his face bore a broad smile of contentment, not the tears that had briefly clouded his eyes.

In theory, the extraordinary congress of the RNI was meant above all to formalize the handover between him and Mohamed Chaouki, endorsed ten days earlier by the political bureau as the sole candidate. Yet in the end, Aziz Akhannouch almost stole the show on his own.

Through his address—and beforehand, through a 20‑minute “documentary” celebrating his leadership within both the party and the government, culminating in the sudden farewell tears of Rachid Talbi Alami, President of the House of Representatives and, on this occasion, chair of the Congress Preparatory Committee—the afternoon’s proceedings served above all to spotlight the now former president of the RNI.

Yet Mohamed Chaouki appeared unfazed. On the contrary, he seized the occasion of his lengthy victory speech to highlight Aziz Akhannouch—his achievements and, above all, his "trust", a thinly veiled reference to the decisive role the latter played in positioning him as the favorite in this succession.

It should be noted that Mohamed Chaouki could well have faced other opponents. The former Minister of Justice, Mohamed Aujjar, had indeed put himself forward to succeed Akhannouch by submitting his completed form to the central leadership. However, on January 28, 2026—the deadline for applications— the RNI’s political bureau threw a spanner in the works: it declared that it would "examine the candidacy of Mohamed Chaouki and (...) decide to submit it to the extraordinary congress." Aujjar explained the day before the Congress that the reason for his voluntary withdrawal from the race was driven by the imperative to close ranks.

At the start of the voting, some congressmen openly called for an applause-based show of approval. But Rachid Talbi Alami, who was responsible for setting the regulatory tone of the proceedings, intervened to remind the audience that the statutes required a ballot‑box vote—a requirement that was ultimately respected.

Around 8 p.m., after 1,933 RNI members had cast their ballots, the name of Mohamed Chaouki was officially announced as the final winner—unsurprisingly, of course.

"And if he had lost?" quipped a colleague ironically, as the count continued in a large adjacent hall closed to the press, under the supervision of Bouchaib Ouabbi, director of the central headquarters in Rabat.

The question arises whether, as a symbolic gesture, it might have been better to engage in a genuine democratic exercise—pitting more than one program, and thus more than one candidate, against each other. The answer came from Anis Birou, Minister of Moroccans Residing Abroad under Abdelilah Benkiran and current member of the political bureau, in the aforementioned documentary: the need to preserve unity.

This imperative can be understood in light of the legislative elections scheduled for 2026, whose preparation would hardly benefit from untimely infighting. Moreover, this is not unprecedented in the annals of the RNI: Aziz Akhannouch himself was elected in October 2016 in Bouznika, then re‑elected in March 2022 during the 7th National Congress, held in hybrid format due to the Covid‑19 pandemic.

Another sign of Akhannouch’s enduring legacy at the extraordinary congress in El Jadida: the RNI’s governing bodies will remain unchanged, after delegates decided—by a show of hands—to extend their mandate.

And this particular point unequivocally confirms that, beyond Mohamed Chaouki assuming leadership, it is ultimately the same party we are dealing with. This direction, in which Aziz Akhannouch is clearly not a stranger, was directly evident in his call, made during his speech, to "rally around the new leadership with the same convictions and commitments that marked the previous period" - namely, his.

But why didn’t he stay on in the end? Formally, it is true, the statutes would have needed to be amended, since they prohibit more than two presidential terms. Yet given the way Aziz Akhannouch "holds" the RNI, and the undeniable unanimity he enjoys, one might believe that had he expressed the wish, congressmen would have hastened to grant him a third term—and, beyond that, to reappoint him as head of government.

Furthermore, the documentary that preceded the official opening of the Congress featured several senior RNI figures—from Mustapha Baitas to Amina Benkhadra and Nadia Fettah Alaoui—expressing the "shock" they felt when Aziz Akhannouch informed them, on January 11, 2026, of his decision not to seek another term. This unexpected decision prompted some observers, particularly in the media, to interpret it as a "forced departure".

The reality, however, seems far more straightforward: in a friendly, spontaneous exchange with the author of these lines, one of Aziz Akhannouch’s close collaborators confided his “fatigue” after more than a decade of intense work—first within the RNI, and since October 2021, at the head of government.

And undoubtedly, we would have heard similar words had we been able to speak with Aziz Akhannouch. On the stage awash in blue where he appeared, vibrant, during the extraordinary congress, one would hardly have thought he was suffering from burnout. Yet ten years of navigating political fronts, in a swamp where cutthroat adversity is the rule, inevitably take their toll.

This can also be seen in Mohamed Chaouki’s emergence, who—at least by his own words—appears determined to take the baton of government leadership from Akhannouch when the time comes. "We will remain at the forefront and occupy the top position in the upcoming events," he proclaimed at the close of the extraordinary congress, to vigorous applause.

Among those applauding, incidentally, was Akhannouch himself, seated in a white armchair just to Chaouki’s right—a privileged witness to the famous line from The Leopard: "Everything must change so that nothing changes."