The city of Safi, cradle of nationalism and a faithful image of the plural Moroccan identity, nevertheless constitutes a reflection of the deep governance crisis shaking Moroccan elected councils. A city sacrificed by its councillors, who are always on the margins of the concerns of the Safi population, which continues to pay the price for a deliberate marginalisation.

The haemorrhage of local management, devoid of the slightest benchmarks, persists with the proliferation of shanty towns and the informal sector, the illegal occupation of public property, the massacre of green spaces for the benefit of real estate speculators, and the sacrificed built heritage, among others. The dull image of the elected councils is confirmed from one decision to the next, and the quality of life continues to deteriorate.

4,000 shanty towns have sprung up in six months in full view of the local and elected authorities. The anarchy in the urban planning sector has reached its peak due to blatant complicity between speculators and decision-makers. Official and private actors have failed in their mission to ensure a social supply capable of meeting the high demand, the result of rural exodus and a demographic explosion. Unfortunately, the intrusion of concrete has disfigured the city, which has experienced excessive expansion devoid of any territorial vision integrating cultural, historical, economic, social, and ecological aspects. As a result, we are faced with 120 housing estates not definitively accepted, unfinished infrastructure, and approximately 100,000 inhabitants living in undignified conditions.

According to an official study, the deficit in basic infrastructure and services in Safi requires a budget of 17 billion to achieve urban upgrading. An ambition that still lags behind due to the weak contribution of the communal council.

The people of Safi feel increasingly alienated; the urban identity is seriously disfigured by the real estate horrors initiated even by some councillors.

Even the relocation programme for the inhabitants of the old Medina is experiencing countless irregularities. Citizens continue to perish under the rubble of houses that are collapsing one after the other. The national operator "Al Omrane", in charge of the operation and having benefited from 185 hectares for the modest price of 36 DH/m2, is slow to resolve this thorny issue, which challenges the city's will, especially since 200 houses are threatening to collapse in the old Medina of Safi!

Childhood and youth reception structures, with the exception of the library, suffer from a serious deficit, especially with the demolition of the youth centre and the yacht club. On the other hand, the achievements of the former communal council presided over by the USFP in Ezzaouia are being massacred one after the other, such as the sports complex, the youth reception centre, and the Kawki and Lackliaa markets.

The cultural sector is increasingly harmed. The Royal cinema now serves as a warehouse, the Roxy cinema has been transformed in turn into a motorcycle car park by the communal council, while bookshops are migrating towards hardware stores and Chinese products.

This observation reached a critical threshold with the recent programming of one billion centimes by the municipal council for the purchase of consumable materials, cars, and office and computer equipment, in a city that lacks everything. And whose mayor, after two years in office, has finally realised that the city is deprived of green spaces, that its roads need redevelopment, and that its youth lack reception structures, among other things. Electoral promises that make the people of Safi laugh and suffer, and they have really had enough!