King Mohammed VI named Fatima Zahra El Mansouri Morocco’s first female prime minister on Tuesday, tasking the 50-year-old lawyer, Marrakesh mayor and former urban-planning minister with forming a new government, the BBC and Al Jazeera (opens in new tab) report.
El Mansouri’s centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won the most seats in the Sept. 23 parliamentary elections — 97 of 395 in the House of Representatives — short of the 198 needed for an absolute majority. Under the constitution, the king appoints the head of government from the party that finishes first. El Mansouri said the appointment was “truly historic” and “a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women,” according to Al Jazeera (opens in new tab).
She is the second woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden (2021–2023). The king chose her over Fouzi Lekjaa, a prominent PAM figure and football official, the BBC notes. Morocco remains a constitutional monarchy in which substantial power rests with the palace.
El Mansouri must negotiate a coalition. PAM has fallen out with the National Rally of Independents (RNI), which led the outgoing government, and the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which rebounded to 54 seats, has said it will stay in opposition under former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, the BBC reports. Coalition talks will shape investment plans ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco is co-hosting with Portugal and Spain, Al Jazeera (opens in new tab) notes.
A lawyer trained in Morocco, France and the United States, El Mansouri became Marrakesh’s first woman mayor in 2009, returned to that post after 2021 elections, and later served as minister for national territory planning, housing and city policy. She has rarely centered gender-equality debates such as polygamy or inheritance reform in public remarks, the BBC observes, while praising the king as “the biggest advocate for women” when asked about protocol at religious ceremonies.