[6][7] Upon ascending to the throne, Mohammed initially introduced a number of reforms and changed the family code, Mudawana, granting women in Morocco more power.

Hassan II, desiring his son to experience competitive pressure, selected 12 classmates recognized for their intellect to accompany Mohammed in his studies.

As depicted in Le Roi prédateur, a 2012 biography authored by two French journalists, there is an account of Hassan instructing his aides to administer twenty lashes to Mohammed when he appeared to lag behind in his studies.

[1] According to a biography by Ferran Sales Aige, Mohammed's father received reports from his spies indicating that the young prince was visiting bars regularly.

[12] He obtained his PhD in law with distinction on 29 October 1993 from the French University of Nice Sophia Antipolis for his thesis on "EEC-Maghreb Relations".

[1] On 12 July 1994, he was promoted to the military rank of Major General, and that same year he became president of the High Council of Culture and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Moroccan Army.

According to the New York Times, prior to ascending to the throne, Mohammed "gained a reputation as a playboy during the years he spent waiting in the wings, showing a fondness for fast cars and nightclubs.

According to Le Roi prédateur, Mohammed's close friend from school, Fouad Ali El Himma, facilitated his visits to Amnesia by installing a private lift from his apartment above that descended directly to the club's premises.

[15] He was formally enthroned a week later and made a televised address, promising to take on poverty and corruption, while creating jobs and improving Morocco's human rights record.

[8][16] His initial directives also included the dismissal of his father's hardline interior minister, Driss Basri, and the appointment of some of his former classmates to key positions in the state bureaucracy.

[25] The 2011 Moroccan protests, led by the 20 February Movement, were primarily motivated by corruption and general political discontentment, as well as by the hardships of the global economic crisis.

In addition, the powers of the judiciary were granted greater independence from the king, who announced that he was impaneling a committee of legal scholars to produce a draft constitution by June 2011.

[39] In November 2020, an escalation of the ongoing Western Sahara conflict began when Sahrawi protesters blocked a road connecting Guerguerat to sub-Saharan Africa via Mauritania.

Morocco responded by intervening militarily to resume movement of people and goods through Guerguerat, which the Polisario Front said had violated the 1991 ceasefire agreement.

[44][45] During the awards ceremony in Kigali, Chakib Benmoussa, attending on behalf of the king, announced in a letter written by Mohammed that Morocco would join the Portugal–Spain 2030 FIFA World Cup bid as a co-host.

[49] Following the September 2023 Al Haouz earthquake which killed nearly three thousand people, Mohammed visited hospitals to support victims and donated blood for the needy.

[55] In July 2016, Mohammed addressed a letter to the 27th African Union (AU) summit in Kigali, in which he requested Moroccan admission to the organization.

Morocco had previously been a member of the AU's predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, until it withdrew in 1984 in protest at the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Mohammed justified his country's withdrawal saying that "the admission of a non-sovereign entity, by means of transgression and collusion" had prompted Morocco to "seek to avoid the division of Africa".

[62] On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in November 2021, the king announced that Morocco would continue to push for a restart of Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations.

[63][64] In August 2022, Mohammed confirmed in a speech that the Western Sahara issue would form the basis for Morocco's foreign policy, through which it "measures the sincerity of friendships and the efficiency of partnerships".

[70] In February 2023, Mohammed and his foreign minister Nasser Bourita visited Gabon, meeting with its president Ali Bongo and conducting a donation of 2,000 tonnes of fertilizer to the country.

[78] SNI and ONA both owned stakes in Brasseries du Maroc, the largest alcoholic beverage manufacturer and distributor of brands such as Heineken in the country.

[76] Protests broke out in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, on 2 August 2013, after Mohammed pardoned 48 jailed Spaniards, including Daniel Galván, a pedophile who had been serving a 30-year sentence for raping 11 children aged between 4 and 15.

[9] Corruption allegedly reaches the highest levels in Morocco, where the business interests of Mohammed VI and some of his advisors influence "every large housing project," according to WikiLeaks documents published in December 2010 and quoted in The Guardian newspaper.

[88] The documents released by the whistleblower website also quote the case of a businessman working for a US consortium, whose plans in Morocco were paralysed for months after he refused to join forces with a company linked with the royal palace.

The documents quoted a company executive linked to the royal family as saying at a meeting that decisions on big investments in the kingdom were taken by only three people: the king, his secretary Mounir Majidi, and the monarch's close friend, adviser and former classmate Fouad Ali El Himma.

[101] In September 2019, the King was advised to rest for several days to recover from acute viral pneumonia, while his son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan represented him at former French President Jacques Chirac's funeral.