Morocco's Elected Government Vies With King's Men Soon after an Islamist opposition leader became Morocco's prime minister as the result of landmark elections, his archrival was named a top adviser to the king. Powerful King Mohammed VI has made a flurry of appointments to his royal cabinet in recent weeks, men who look poised to challenge the new government's power and, critics say, threaten democratic progress unleashed by the Arab Spring. The Islamist Justice and Development Party formed Morocco's new government Jan. 3 promising a change to the status quo, after dominating November elections. But analysts and activists say the king's new "shadow cabinet," which includes some outgoing ministers, will really rule Morocco and prevent any real reform in this North African kingdom of 32 million. Like many countries in the region, Morocco was wracked by pro-democracy protests last year which the king appeased by reforming the constitution and holding early elections in November. Morocco, popular with Europeans for its exotic cities and sunny beaches, was said to have dodged the unrest elsewhere in the region, with carefully managed democratic reforms. That impression was deepened when the opposition Islamist party, known by its French acronym PJD, won elections and the right to form a new government. Now doubts are rising are to whether the new government will be able to change anything in the face of the entrenched power of the king's advisers, which is not set down in any constitution. FILE - This Jan. 3, 2012 photo released by the Moroccan Royal Palace, shows Morocco's King Mohammed VI, center, flanked by his son Moulay El Hassan, 6, and his Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, 2nd right, posing with the new government after the swearing in ceremony at the royal palace in Rabat, Tuesday, Jan. 3rd, 2012. Identified ministers are on first row: Foreign Affairs minister, Saad Eddine El-Othmani, left; state minister, Abdelilah Baha, 2nd left; Interior minister, Mohand Laenser, right. (AP Photo/Azzouz Boukallouch, Moroccan Royal Palace/HO) NO SALES Close The palace announced the new adviser appointments publicly in what some saw as an intentional threat to the new government. "In all of its big decisions, this (elected) government will not be able to take the initiative because it is not the sole decider," said Nabila Mounib, a top official with the left-wing Socialist Union Party. The most remarked-upon royal appointment was that of Fouad el-Himma, an old classmate of the king's who had founded the Party of Authenticity in Modernity in 2009 with the express purpose of keeping the Islamists out of power. El-Himma's party did poorly in the elections - but weeks later he was named adviser to the king. High-profile former Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi-Fihri has also joined the royal cabinet, which includes experts in the economy, social affairs, diplomacy, foreign trade and constitutional law. "The royal cabinet, with its accelerated recruitment of heavy hitting counselors, has begun to seriously resemble a second government," said Karim Boukhari, editor of the weekly TelQuel magazine in an angry editorial accusing the palace of going back on its reform promises. The monarchy governs without challenge, either directly or through men it has chosen, and the popular will, embodied by the victorious political parties, is left eternally in check. Morocco's kings have always held true power in the country, but under last year's constitutional reform, the new prime minister should have more influence than in the past. The king has always had a cabinet of advisers, and the previous ruler King Hassan II described them famously as close confidants whom "I can comfortably receive in my bedroom, while I am still in bed." Under his son, however, the cabinet has grown in size and expertise, employing some of the top people in their fields overseeing a range of institutions and committees that are not answerable to the elected government.