Morocco appoints first female prime minister after election

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country’s first female prime minister after her Authenticity and Modernity Party won the most seats in parliamentary elections. She now faces a coalition-building challenge: The party holds 97 seats in the 395-member lower house, far short of the 198 needed for an absolute majority.

The royal palace said Tuesday that El Mansouri had been tasked with forming a government, Al Jazeera reported. Her appointment came four days after the election results were announced. She is the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who served from October 2021 to August 2023.

In a televised address, El Mansouri called the appointment “truly historic,” according to Al Jazeera. “For the first time in our country’s history, a woman is taking on the responsibility of leading the government,” she said. “This is a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women.”

El Mansouri, 50, is the mayor of Marrakesh and served as a minister responsible for national territory planning, urban planning, housing and city policy in the outgoing coalition government. A lawyer by training, she first became mayor in 2009, the first woman to hold the post, and returned to it after the 2021 elections.

The king selected her over Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco’s football chief and another senior politician from her party, the BBC reported. Morocco’s constitution requires the king to appoint the head of government from the party that finishes first in elections to the House of Representatives. The choice was less clear-cut than in past elections because the Authenticity and Modernity Party, known as PAM, has had a collective leadership rather than a single secretary general since February 2024.

Forming a majority could prove difficult. PAM was a junior partner in the outgoing government led by the National Rally of Independents, but the two parties have fallen out, according to the BBC. The Islamist Justice and Development Party, or PJD, won 54 seats, up from 13 in the previous election. Its leader, former Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, said it would remain in opposition and would not partner with PAM. Al Jazeera reported that the Federation of Democratic Left also plans to stay in opposition.

At a victory news conference before her appointment, El Mansouri was asked whether her role would require changes to religious ceremonies attended by the king, where men and women pray in separate sections. She did not answer directly, instead calling the king “the biggest advocate for women” in Morocco, the BBC reported. “If I am entrusted with the responsibility of head of government, it will be a great honour,” she said.

El Mansouri has rarely spoken publicly about women’s rights or gender inequality during her political career, according to the BBC. In a 2021 interview with her party’s magazine, she rejected the label of an “iron woman,” saying: “I am neither a woman of steel nor iron… I am a free activist.”