L’analyse des lieux de campagne électorale apparaît comme une modalité féconde pour interroger la relation entre géographie culturelle et géographie politique. En prenant l’exemple d’une source historique au cœur de la ville de Tiznit au Maroc, lors de la campagne électorale de 2021, il est possible de comprendre comment les partis politiques investissent un haut lieu de l’identité culturelle locale comme figure rhétorique pour appuyer leur tentative de conquête du pouvoir politique. Durant plusieurs décennies, ce haut lieu a cristallisé les grandes controverses idéologiques et culturelles entre la défense d’une identité amazighe et les menaces d’une hégémonie panarabe et panislamiste. Cependant, l’attachement populaire au lieu et la reconnaissance constitutionnelle de la composante amazighe au sein de la nation marocaine amène à une volonté mimétique des partis en campagne d’accaparer l’aura de ce haut lieu pour attester de leur ancrage culturel local. Si la concentration des opérations de campagne par les partis (permanences, défilés) vient alors consacrer le haut lieu comme un espace public par excellence, le consensus politique qu’il incarne vient réduire la possibilité pour qu’il devienne une réelle agora politique. Par conséquent, le succès symbolique du lieu accompagne aussi la fin des grandes rivalités partisanes et finalement nourrit un désengagement militant qui se traduit par une baisse de la participation électorale. Le haut lieu perd de sa puissance de controverse pour devenir un étendard identitaire consensuel au sein d’une politique culturelle de rayonnement et d’attractivité touristique nationale et internationale de la ville.
The analysis of electoral campaign places appears to be a fruitful way of examining the relationship between cultural geography and political geography. By taking the example of a historical source in the heart of the city of Tiznit in Morocco, during the 2021 electoral campaign, it is possible to understand how the political parties invest a high place of local cultural identity as a rhetorical figure in their attempt to win political power. The high place crystallises the major ideological and cultural controverse between the defence of an Amazigh identity and the threats of pan-Arab and pan-Islamist hegemony. However, the popular attachment to the place and the constitutional recognition of the Amazigh component within the Moroccan nation had led to a mimetic desire on the part of the campaigning parties to monopolise its aura in order to demonstrate their local cultural roots. While the concentration of campaign operations by the parties (permanent offices, parades) consecrates the high place as the public space, the political consensus it embodies reduces the possibility of it becoming a real political agora. As a result, the symbolic success of the site also accompanied the end of powerful partisan rivalries and, ultimately, a disengagement from activism, reflected in a drop in electoral mobilisation. The site lost its controversial power to become a consensual standard of identity within the city’s cultural policy, with the aim of raising its profile and attracting national and international tourists.
The analysis of electoral campaign places appears to be a fruitful way of examining the relationship between cultural geography and political geography. By taking the example of a historical source in the heart of the city of Tiznit in Morocco, during the 2021 electoral campaign, it is possible to understand how the political parties invest a high place of local cultural identity as a rhetorical figure in their attempt to win political power. The high place crystallises the major ideological and cultural controverse between the defence of an Amazigh identity and the threats of pan-Arab and pan-Islamist hegemony. However, the popular attachment to the place and the constitutional recognition of the Amazigh component within the Moroccan nation had led to a mimetic desire on the part of the campaigning parties to monopolise its aura in order to demonstrate their local cultural roots. While the concentration of campaign operations by the parties (permanent offices, parades) consecrates the high place as the public space, the political consensus it embodies reduces the possibility of it becoming a real political agora. As a result, the symbolic success of the site also accompanied the end of powerful partisan rivalries and, ultimately, a disengagement from activism, reflected in a drop in electoral mobilisation. The site lost its controversial power to become a consensual standard of identity within the city’s cultural policy, with the aim of raising its profile and attracting national and international tourists.