Morocco’s outgoing majority found itself around a familiar table on Wednesday, though not quite in the order it had grown accustomed to over the past five years, as Istiqlal chief Nizar Baraka followed RNI into talks with Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri on forming the next government.
Baraka led an Istiqlal delegation to PAM headquarters in Rabat for El Mansouri’s second consultation of the day. He was accompanied by executive committee members Mohamed Ould Errachid, Abdessamad Kayouh and Abdeljabbar Rachdi.
Hours earlier, an RNI delegation led by Mohamed Chouki, and including Rachid Talbi Alami and Mohamed Boussaid, had taken the first turn. Abdellatif Ouahbi, Fouzi Lekjaa and Ahmed Akhchichine joined El Mansouri on the PAM side.
The sequence followed the Sept 23 ballot. PAM decided after El Mansouri’s appointment on Tuesday to receive parties according to their electoral ranking, putting RNI, with 66 seats, first and Istiqlal, with 65, immediately behind it.
By bringing the two through PAM headquarters in succession, Wednesday’s opening round inevitably revived the outline of the majority that has governed Morocco since 2021. The numbers have changed considerably; the parties, so far, have not.
PAM went into the outgoing government as its second-largest component and emerged from last week’s election on top with 97 seats. RNI, the senior partner since 2021, slipped to second place, while Istiqlal remained the third leg of the coalition and finished only one seat behind RNI.
Istiqlal fought the election as the third member of the outgoing majority, and Baraka arrived on Wednesday for the first discussions with the woman now charged with assembling its possible successor.
The arithmetic gives those discussions obvious weight. PAM and RNI together have 163 seats, 35 short of the 198 required for an absolute majority in the 395-member House. Istiqlal’s 65 would take the three parties to 228 and reproduce the outgoing coalition with a comfortable majority, albeit under new leadership and with a new balance of strength between its members.
El Mansouri poursuit ses consultations avec l’Istiqlal
Istiqlal’s own bodies still have their say. Its executive committee has referred the question of participation in the next government to the National Council, which is due to meet in Salé on Saturday. Wednesday’s meeting came before that step in the party’s internal process.
El Mansouri, however, is not simply trying to put the old band back together. PAM said after its political bureau meeting on Tuesday that she would consult parties across the new House, working down the order produced by the election. The approach leaves her free to test other combinations while the first meetings establish where the larger blocs stand.
On Tuesday evening, El Mansouri called PJD Secretary-General Abdelilah Benkirane and proposed a meeting, which he accepted despite his party having unanimously chosen the opposition benches after winning 54 seats.
The PJD therefore remains on her consultation list without, on its stated position, being part of the coalition sums. Other parties are due through PAM headquarters as the talks continue over the coming days.
