Abderrahmane Youssoufi
Encyclopedia
Abderrahmane Youssoufi (born March 8, 1924) is a Moroccan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 from 1998 to 2002.

Early life

Born in Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...

, Abderrahmane Youssoufi was a socialist from a young age, dedicating himself to organizing the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 of Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

 as early as 1944. In 1949, Youssoufi began also to fight for the rights of emigrant Moroccan workers in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

He also studied law, practicing in Tangier from 1952 to 1960.

Political career

In 1959, Youssoufi joined the National Union of Popular Forces
National Union of Popular Forces
The National Union of Popular Forces was founded in 1959 in Morocco by Mehdi Ben Barka and his entourage, because they found that the Istiqlal Party - which had led the independence struggle - wasn't radical enough.Espousing socialist policies, the party took a strongly critical line towards the...

, a left-wing political party. He was arrested for his involvement in 1959, and again in 1963, the latter arrest leading to a prison sentence of two years. Following his release, Youssoufi went into self-imposed exile in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 for a period of fifteen years.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Popular Forces became the Socialist Union of Popular Forces
Socialist Union of Popular Forces
The Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, is a social democratic political party in Morocco...

. In 1980, Youssoufi returned to join the new party, becoming the party secretary in 1992.

Prime Minister

In March 1998, King Hassan II named Youssoufi the Prime Minister of Morocco, a post he held until October 2002. In 2003, Youssoufi announced his retirement from politics.
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