Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri became the first woman in Morocco’s history to head the government on Tuesday, after King Mohammed VI appointed the Authenticty and Modernity party (PAM) leader to the post and tasked her with forming a new cabinet.
The King received El Mansouri at the Royal Palace in Rabat and appointed her under Article 47 of the Constitution, the Ministry of the Royal Household, Protocol and Chancellery said in a statement.
El Mansouri said shortly after her appointment that she would begin consultations within PAM and with other political parties, setting in motion the talks that will determine the make-up of the next government.
“We will begin internal consultations within the party as well as with all political parties, so that we can present to His Majesty, as soon as possible, our proposal for a government that meets the expectations of the King and citizens,” she said.
Her first remarks also gave an early indication of the ground on which she intends to pitch the next government. El Mansouri singled out the expectations of young Moroccans and promised what she called “real solutions” rather than an expansive program of pledges.
“We are fully aware that this will be a crucial period, with great expectations from citizens, particularly young people,” she said. “That is why we will propose a program that provides citizens with real, realistic solutions, in accordance with His Majesty’s orientations.”
El Mansouri also dwelt on the first that came with Tuesday’s appointment. “For the first time in the history of our country, a woman is assuming the responsibility of Head of Government,” she said, describing the appointment as a source of pride not only for herself but “for all the women of the nation.”
She said the appointment carried a message to women across the country, while pledging to work with “all of society” and pointing to the place of women in Moroccan public life.
The appointment breaks new ground at the top of Morocco’s executive and caps a political rise that began nearly two decades ago in El Mansouri’s native Marrakech, where she first entered politics in 2007 and, two years later, became mayor.
It comes six days after the Authenticity and Modernity Party won the Sept 23 legislative elections with 97 seats, finishing ahead of the RNI on 66 and Istiqlal on 65. The PJD took 54.
For El Mansouri, 50, the route to the government helm has run through almost every rung of PAM since she helped found the party in 2008.
Born in Marrakech on Jan 3, 1976, she entered politics a year earlier as a member of the Movement of All Democrats. In 2009, at 33, she was elected president of the Marrakech communal council, a post she held until 2015.
Parliament followed. She served as an MP from 2011 to 2016, returned to the House for another term from 2016 to 2021 and, inside PAM, chaired the party’s national council for nine years, from 2015 until 2024.
Marrakech remained her political base. El Mansouri returned to the mayoralty in 2021, the same year she joined the government as minister of National Territorial Planning, Urban Development, Housing and City Policy.
Three years later, PAM abandoned the single-secretary-general model and handed its leadership to a three-member collective. El Mansouri became its coordinator alongside Mehdi Bensaïd and Fatima Saadi.
That arrangement put her at the center of the party as it headed into this month’s election—and eventually into first place.
Her prospects for the top government job had followed PAM throughout the campaign and resurfaced as soon as the ballots were counted. El Mansouri, however, kept her cards close to her chest the day after the vote.
Asked whether she was ready to become Head of Government, she said it would be a “great honor” if the King entrusted her with the responsibility. On possible alliances, she declined to draw red lines before the appointment, saying PAM was prepared to talk to all parties.
Tuesday settled one question. Coalition arithmetic leaves another wide open. PAM’s 97 MPs make it comfortably the largest force in the new House, but leave El Mansouri 101 seats short of the 198 needed for a majority in the 395-member chamber.
Read also : PJD shuts govt door as National Council backs opposition unanimously
One prospective partner has already taken itself off the table. The PJD’s National Council unanimously opted for opposition at an extraordinary meeting in Bouznika on Saturday, endorsing a position first taken by its General Secretariat. Abdelilah Benkirane had earlier ruled out serving in a PAM-led government.
Istiqlal, with 65 seats, has yet to show its hand. The party, which governed alongside PAM and the RNI during the outgoing term, has called its National Council for Saturday to decide whether it will join the next majority.
Read also : Govt or opposition? Istiqlal leaves its answer for Saturday
A lawyer specializing in land and property law, she has been registered with the Marrakech Bar since March 2005. She holds a private law degree from Mohammed V University in Rabat, a postgraduate DEA in business contract law from the University of Montpellier and a certificate in Anglo-Saxon law from Pace University in the United States.
Her legal career ran alongside a political ascent that increasingly moved beyond Marrakech. In 2014, Forbes placed her at the top of its list of 20 influential young African women, and she was named a Young Global Leader the same year.
She is also a member of the International Association of Francophone Mayors and vice-president of the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils.
Her five years in the outgoing government gave her a national executive record before Tuesday’s appointment. As housing and urban development minister from 2021 to 2026, she oversaw a portfolio spanning territorial planning, housing policy and urban development while retaining the Marrakech mayoralty.
Her standing inside PAM was tested by another development ahead of the election: the arrival of Fouzi Lekjaa in the party’s senior ranks, which fed speculation about its future leadership and its possible candidate for Head of Government. El Mansouri publicly rejected suggestions that his arrival was meant to displace anyone and later described him as an “added value” to the party.
When PAM emerged with 97 seats on Sept 23, she still refused to get ahead of the constitutional process.
“Let’s wait for the political bureau meeting and the appointment of a woman or man as Head of Government,” she told reporters the following day, as questions turned almost immediately from the result to the shape of the next majority.
Five days later, the appointment went to her.
