Morocco has a woman leading its government for the first time in its history. King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as prime minister and tasked her with forming a new cabinet after her party finished first in last month’s parliamentary elections.
El Mansouri, a 50-year-old lawyer, leads the Authenticity and Modernity Party, known as PAM, which won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives in the September 23 election. That was the party’s first parliamentary victory since its founding, but it fell well short of the 198 seats needed to govern alone, so her first job is building a coalition.
Under Morocco’s constitutional monarchy, the king appoints the head of government from the party that wins the most seats, while the monarch remains head of state and keeps decisive authority over defence, foreign policy and the biggest economic files. The royal palace said the appointment was announced by the Ministry of the Royal Household, and that El Mansouri was received at the Royal Palace in Rabat and asked to form the government.
Speaking after the meeting, El Mansouri called the moment historic for the country and said it was a source of pride for Moroccan women, not only for her. She said she would begin consultations inside her party and with other political forces immediately, and promised a programme offering realistic and concrete solutions, with young people among her stated priorities.
Her rise has been long in the making. El Mansouri was involved in PAM’s establishment in 2008 and became the first woman mayor of Marrakesh in 2009, a post she later regained in 2021. In the outgoing government she held the housing and urban policy portfolio, and she has been part of PAM’s collective leadership since 2024. Reports say the king chose her over other senior figures in the party, including the country’s football chief.
The National Rally of Independents came second in the election with 66 seats, followed by Istiqlal with 65 and the Justice and Development Party with 54. Some parties have already signalled they intend to remain in opposition, which means the coalition arithmetic may take time even as the new premier moves quickly to open talks.
The government she forms will inherit a demanding list: creating jobs, containing the cost of living, raising wages and delivering the investment and infrastructure projects tied to Morocco’s preparations to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. Turnout in the election was reported at a two-decade low, a sign of the public impatience any new cabinet will have to answer.
El Mansouri is only the second or third woman, depending on how the count is framed, to lead a government in the Arab world, and the first in Morocco. For now, the symbolism is settled. The politics of coalition building will decide what comes next.
PAM’s own history is part of the story. The party was founded in 2008 by a close adviser to the king as a modernising counterweight in Moroccan politics, and this election was its first parliamentary victory. That a party built to project renewal has now produced the country’s first woman head of government gives El Mansouri a strong opening narrative. Her test is whether coalition partners, several of whom campaigned against the outgoing majority, will give her the votes to match it, and whether a government formed at a two-decade low in turnout can rebuild public confidence while delivering the jobs and investment she has promised.
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