RABAT, Morocco – King Mohammed VI on Tuesday officially appointed Marrakesh Mayor and outgoing Minister of National Territory Planning, Land Planning, Housing and City Policy, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, as Morocco’s first female prime minister, tasking the 50-year-old commercial attorney with forming a new coalition government following her party’s decisive victory in last week’s parliamentary elections, international diplomatic correspondents reported from Rabat on Tuesday evening, September 29, 2026.
The appointment marks a historic milestone in the political history of the North African kingdom, making El Mansouri the first woman to lead the government in Morocco and only the second woman in the modern history of the Arab world to hold prime ministerial office, following Najla Bouden of Tunisia.
Okay News reports that the royal cabinet confirmed the appointment in an official communique issued from the Royal Palace in Rabat, noting that King Mohammed VI received El Mansouri in audience in accordance with Article 47 of the 2011 Moroccan Constitution, which stipulates that the monarch must appoint the head of government from the political party that secures the highest number of seats in the House of Representatives.
El Mansouri’s centre-right Authenticity and Modernity Party dominated the legislative ballot by securing 97 seats in the 395-member lower chamber, finishing 31 seats ahead of its nearest rival in a nationwide vote that was nevertheless characterized by historically low voter turnout across major urban centers.
Without an absolute majority in parliament, the PAM must now initiate formal multi-party negotiations to assemble a viable governing coalition for its five-year mandate, operating within a constitutional framework where the monarch retains ultimate sovereign authority over national defense, foreign policy, and major strategic state sectors.
The PAM, which was established in 2008 by senior royal adviser Fouad Ali El Himma as a modernist political bulwark against the country’s Islamist movements, has long championed social modernization and administrative decentralization.
El Mansouri is no stranger to breaking gender barriers in Moroccan politics, having made history in 2009 when she became the first woman to be elected mayor of Marrakesh at the age of 33, before regaining the municipal leadership in 2021 and subsequently joining the national cabinet to oversee urban housing and territorial development.
The prime minister-designate confronts an immediate array of deep structural socioeconomic hurdles, including acute youth unemployment, inflationary pressures on essential foodstuffs, and widening regional wealth disparities that recently spurred mass unauthorized border crossings by young Moroccans into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and triggered youth-led civic protests.
“Young people are going through a crisis and we must provide them with answers,” El Mansouri stated during the parliamentary election campaign. “We want to restore their hope, not only through speeches, but through concrete solutions.”
Her incoming administration will also shoulder the responsibility of coordinating tens of billions of dollars in high-speed rail, stadium construction, and airport modernization programs required for Morocco to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.
To address domestic economic grievances, the PAM campaigned on an ambitious economic blueprint pledging to deliver an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of five percent, contain inflation to two percent, and generate at least one million formal jobs over its five-year tenure.
In the official election results, the PAM was followed by the National Rally of Independents, which led the outgoing governing coalition and secured 66 seats, while the conservative Istiqlal party placed third with 65 seats.
The Islamist opposition Justice and Development Party recorded substantial gains by securing 54 seats, rebounding sharply from the 13 seats it won in 2021 after centering its campaign on anti-corruption and social welfare programs.
Despite the electoral recovery, PJD secretary-general and former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane ruled out entering into any coalition arrangement with the PAM, describing the election outcome as tainted while El Mansouri prepares to begin formal coalition consultations with other centrist and conservative parliamentary blocs in Rabat.
