Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri has said she would personally oppose another alliance with the RNI if the party finishes first in the September 23 legislative elections, taking the growing dispute between the two coalition partners into the question of who governs after the polls.
“If the RNI comes out on top in the upcoming elections, I personally am not interested in an alliance with them,” the national coordinator of PAM’s collective leadership told AM+ Media.
She stopped short of presenting that position as a party decision, saying post-election alliances would be decided by PAM’s National Council.
“The governing coalition after the upcoming elections will be decided by the National Council,” Mansouri said, stressing that PAM was “a party of institutions”.
Read also : PAM hits back at RNI over ‘poaching’ claims, points to its 2021 record
The remarks come as relations between PAM and the RNI deteriorate in the final weeks before polling day, following a row over elected representatives switching parties and the leak of an audio recording attributed to House Speaker Rachid Talbi Alami.
No comment on Talbi Alami recording
Mansouri declined to engage with the contents of the recording, in which Talbi Alami, an RNI political bureau member, is heard attacking Fouzi Lekjaa and discussing his prospects of securing the finance portfolio in a future government.
“I have no comment on the audio leak circulating on social media — we heard it at PAM, as did all Moroccans,” she said.
PAM, she added, would not respond to the recording through its political bureau.
But she followed that with a swipe at the RNI: “Whoever wants to give lessons should look after their own house first.”
RNI president Mohamed Choukih has expressed regret over the leak, describing political bureau meetings as a private space for free discussion and saying the party reserved the right to take legal action.
Read also : RNI accuses PAM of poaching its candidates as election battle heats up
‘Go out and explain your programs"
Mansouri also responded to the RNI’s accusations that PAM had been enticing and pressuring its elected representatives to switch sides ahead of the election.
She said parties should instead take their programs to voters.
“We call on all political parties to play their role in the election campaign—to go out and explain their electoral programs, projects and platforms to citizens, because this is a difficult social and economic moment,” she said.
“Moroccans expect a great deal from us—they expect a high level of political maturity from us, not baseless accusations to hide our failures behind a narrative of victimhood.”
PAM had earlier rejected the RNI’s allegations and pointed to the 2021 elections, when it said the RNI fielded more than 17 parliamentary candidates previously affiliated with five other parties, including six former PAM MPs.
