Morocco has appointed its first woman prime minister, the royal cabinet said yesterday, following last week’s parliamentary elections in which the mayor of Marrakesh, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, won her party.
Her centre-right party, Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), won the vote, taking 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, 31 more than the next biggest party. But the election had the lowest turnout in two decades, AFP reported.
King Mohammed VI has now charged the 50-year-old, who was also housing minister, with “forming the new government,” the royal cabinet announced.
“This appointment is historical,” El Mansouri remarked in a televised address shortly afterward.
“For the first time in our country’s history a woman is undertaking the task of leading the government,” she remarked.
“It is a source of pride for me and for all the women of Morocco.”
The PAM will need to form a coalition with other parties as it does not have an overwhelming majority, although the monarch retains considerable authority over key policy.
“The work begins today,” for the next premier, she remarked.
“First we will start internal consultations within our party before we discuss with all political groups.”
El Mansouri joined the PAM in 2008, when it was created by current royal adviser Fouad Ali El Himma to counterbalance the country’s Islamist movement.
She was also the first woman to be mayor of Marrakesh, winning the post in 2009, losing it six years later, and then winning it again in 2021.
Rebuilding hope
El Mansouri’s cabinet will have to grapple with various urgent concerns such as unemployment and the cost of living, as well as ongoing social imbalances that particularly affect young people.
The parliamentary vote followed weeks after tens of thousands of primarily young Moroccan migrants surged into Spain’s enclave of Ceuta, a crisis that exposed the socio-economic discontent of the youth.
It also followed a Gen-Z protest movement that took to the streets a year ago demanding better health and education.
“We are very aware that this period will be important and with high expectations from Moroccans, particularly the youth,” El Mansouri stated.
That is why we will have a program with tangible and realistic solutions to citizens’ issues.
Her party has guaranteed average yearly economic growth of five percent, inflation of two percent and at least one million new employment over its five-year mandate.
The National Rally of Independents (RNI), which is at the head of the outgoing coalition, was the runner-up in the polls with 66 seats.
The right-wing Istiqlal party was third with 65 seats, while the Islamist opposition’s Justice and Development Party (PJD) won 54 seats.
The PJD made huge gains after gaining just 13 seats in 2021, having built much of their campaign around an anti-corruption platform.
Its leader, former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, celebrated a “victory” but ruled out joining a coalition formed by the PAM, which he said was “tainted by fraud” without giving details.
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