Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri’s search for a governing majority moved beyond PAM’s old coalition partners on Wednesday as she received USFP First Secretary Driss Lachgar, bringing the Socialists into a day of talks that began with RNI and Istiqlal.
Lachgar was received at PAM headquarters in Rabat by Fouzi Lekjaa, a member of the party’s political bureau, before meeting El Mansouri as she worked her way through the parties represented in the new House of Representatives.
USFP comes to the table with 26 seats from the Sept 23 election, fewer than it won in 2021, and well behind the three parties El Mansouri began sounding out as she tries to assemble the 198 seats needed for an absolute majority.
Her first appointments were with RNI and Istiqlal, PAM’s partners in the outgoing government. RNI chief Mohamed Chouki emerged from the talks promising to help El Mansouri in her task but did not say whether his party was prepared to join the next government.
Istiqlal Secretary-General Nizar Baraka struck a similarly cooperative note, calling for political parties to move beyond electoral rivalry and rally around the economic, social and geostrategic challenges facing the country. His party will put the question of government participation before its National Council.
Lachgar’s arrival took the consultations beyond that familiar three-party arrangement and into the wider parliamentary field from which El Mansouri can draw as she weighs the shape and size of her majority.
The talks are continuing at PAM headquarters, with El Mansouri due to receive other parties represented in the new House.
