Morocco Names Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri First Woman Prime Minister

On Tuesday, Morocco's King Mohammed VI named Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as prime minister, marking the first time a woman has held that office in the kingdom, following her Authenticity and Modernity Party's (PAM) first-place finish in the September 23 parliamentary vote.¹²⁵⁶

Infographic

Enlarge

Election and constitutional process

Morocco's constitution requires the monarch to select the prime minister from whichever party captures the most parliamentary seats. According to Al Jazeera and Deutsche Welle, PAM—a liberal-centrist party established in 2008—secured 97 seats out of 395 in the House of Representatives during the September 23 vote, a lead Deutsche Welle put at 31 seats over the next closest party.³¹⁹⁵

The National Rally of Independents won 66 seats. The Istiqlal party won 65 seats according to the Straits Times and Morocco World News, though Gulf News gave a different count. The Islamist Justice and Development Party took 54 seats according to several outlets, an increase the party itself said was cause for celebration compared with the 13 seats it won in 2021. Its leader, former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, said the party would remain in opposition. Fouzi Lekjaa, described by the Straits Times as Morocco's football federation chief and a two-time government budget manager, joined PAM weeks before the election.³⁹¹⁰¹

Turnout was reported by Deutsche Welle as the lowest in two decades, while Gulf News put the figure at 38.08 percent.²¹⁰

From Marrakesh mayor to minister

Trained as a lawyer, El Mansouri began her studies at Mohammed V University in Rabat, later pursuing further education abroad at the University of Montpellier in France and New York University in the U.S., focusing on business and corporate law. Al Jazeera reported she was born in Marrakesh in 1976, a detail disputed by Gulf News; she is 50 years old, according to Al Jazeera and the Washington Post.¹⁵⁴¹⁰

After joining PAM in 2008, she made history the following year as Marrakesh's first female mayor, a role Deutsche Welle says she occupied for six years, though Gulf News offers a different account of her tenure's duration. Following the 2021 elections, she once again headed the Marrakesh municipal council, and that October was named to then-prime minister Aziz Akhannouch's cabinet as minister overseeing national spatial planning, urban development, housing and urban policy. Deutsche Welle reports that by February 2024, she had risen to become one of PAM's leading figures and was selected to coordinate the party's collective leadership. According to the BBC, she ranks among Morocco's best-known women in politics.¹²⁵¹⁰

Coalition talks and challenges

According to the Royal Palace, El Mansouri was given the responsibility of assembling a new government in the wake of the September 23 vote. She said: "For the first time in our country's history, a woman is taking on the responsibility of leading the government," adding, "This is a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women." She said Morocco was entering a period that would be "significant and marked by high expectations from Moroccans, particularly young people," and pledged "a program offering concrete and realistic solutions to citizens' concerns."¹⁰⁵⁸⁹

Before her appointment, she had said, "His Majesty is the holder of wisdom… If I am entrusted with the responsibility of head of government, it will be a great honour," describing herself as "neither a woman of steel nor iron... I am a free activist." PAM stated that it had "expressed a willingness to work with all political groups," and El Mansouri indicated the party would negotiate "without predetermined exclusions." She thus becomes only the second woman in the Arab world to head a government, following Tunisia's Najla Bouden, whose term ran from October 2021 to August 2023.¹⁴¹⁰⁴

According to the Independent, El Mansouri has denied allegations of a conflict of interest, calling the claims defamatory and launching legal action.⁴