Morocco names Fatima El Mansouri first woman PM

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, on Tuesday named Marrakesh mayor Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri the country’s first woman prime minister, the royal cabinet announced, after her party won last week’s parliamentary elections.

Her centre-right Authenticity and Modernity Party had dominated the vote, winning 97 out of 395 seats in the House of Representatives — 31 more than the next closest competitor, although the poll was marked by the lowest turnout in two decades.

The royal cabinet said the monarch has now tasked the 50-year-old, who also served as housing minister, with “forming the new government.”

Without an outright majority, the PAM will have to form a coalition with other parties for its five-year tenure, though the monarch retains broad powers over major policies

The PAM was founded in 2008 by current royal adviser Fouad Ali El Himma as a counterweight to the country’s Islamist movement.

El Mansouri was also the first woman to serve as mayor of Marrakesh, winning the office in 2009 before losing it six years later, then retaking it in 2021.

– ‘Restore hope’ –

El Mansouri’s cabinet will have to tackle several pressing issues, including unemployment and living costs, as well as persistent social disparities, particularly weighing on young people.

Young people are going through a crisis, and we must provide them with answers,” she said during the campaign. “We want to restore their hope, not only through speeches, but through concrete solutions.”

The parliamentary vote came just weeks after tens of thousands of mainly young Moroccan migrants rushed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, a crisis that highlighted socioeconomic frustrations among the youth.

It also came a year after a Gen-Z protest movement took to the streets to demand better health and education.

Her party has pledged average annual economic growth of five per cent, inflation of two per cent and the creation of at least one million new jobs over its five-year term.

The PAM was followed in the polls by the National Rally of Independents, which heads the outgoing coalition and won 66 seats.

The right-wing Istiqlal party came third with 65 seats, while the Islamist opposition’s Justice and Development Party took 54 seats.

The PJD made significant gains after winning just 13 seats in 2021, having focused its campaign in part on fighting corruption.

Its chief, former PM Abdelilah Benkirane, hailed a “victory” but ruled out joining a coalition led by the PAM, which he said was “tainted by fraud,” without providing details.

AFP