Who is Fatima El Mansouri? Morocco’s king picks first female prime minister – ‘Truly historic’

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has named Urban Planning Minister Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the North African country’s prime minister. This makes the 50-year-old attorney the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in the Muslim kingdom.

Mansouri was tasked with forming a new government, the Royal Palace said in a statement. The announcement came four days after the election results were announced, with Mansouri’s Authenticity and Modernity Party, or PAM, winning the most votes.

Mansouri will also be the second woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world after Najla Bouden in Tunisia.

Mansouri has been the mayor of Marrakesh for several years and has also served as a minister in the previous coalition government. El Mansouri said in a televised address that her appointment was ‘truly historic’.

“For the first time in our country’s history, a woman is taking on the responsibility of leading the government,” she was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

“This is a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women,” she said

Morocco, an Islamic country, is a constitutional monarchy, but most power remains in the hands of the king.

Among Morocco’s most prominent female politicians

Mansouri is one of Morocco’s most prominent female politicians, according to the BBC.

A lawyer by training, Mansouri studied at Mohammed V University in the capital, Rabat. Later, she continued her education in France and the US, specialising in business and corporate law.

Mansouri entered politics after PAM was founded in 2008. She had become the first woman to serve as mayor of Marrakesh in 2009. She became Mayor of Marrakesh again after the 2021 elections. She faced accusations of a conflict of interest after a group of unidentified hackers claimed she had used her position for personal gain in land transactions in Marrakech. Mansouri denied the allegations, called them defamatory and took legal action.

PAM was founded by Fouad Ali El Himma, Mansouri’s childhood friend and close adviser to the king.

In the past five years, Mansouri served as a minister for national territory planning, urban planning, housing and city policy under former Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.

In February 2024, she became the co-ordinator of Pam’s leadership coalition.

Mansouri is the daughter of the “pasha of Marrakech” Abderrahmane El Mansouri, a senior local official who was also Morocco’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. He headed Marrakech’s bar association and was a landowner.

Morocco’s constitution

The Moroccan Constitution gives the king, who is the country’s highest authority, the power to appoint the prime minister, but he must choose from the party that wins the most seats in parliamentary elections. That was a change successfully pushed by Arab Spring protesters in 2011. Before that, the king could name the prime minister without any such restriction.

One million of the 15.8 million registered voters in last week’s election voted for the Authenticity and Modernity Party, marking its first win since its creation. The election was the first since the Ceuta migration crisis last July and deadly youth-led protests last year.

Mansouri is expected to build a coalition in the coming days to form a government, as Morocco’s electoral system makes it difficult for a single party to win an absolute majority.

With 97 seats, PAM does not have a majority and will need to form a coalition to reach the 198 seats required for an absolute majority in the 395-member parliament, BBC reported.

PAM has expressed its willingness to work with all parties, but some, including the moderate Islamist Justice and Development party and left-wing Federation of Democratic Left, have announced they will remain in the opposition.

Mansouri’s government is expected to make billions of dollars in investments linked to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, while seeking to deliver on promises to fight inflation, raise wages and create jobs.

(With inputs from AP, BBC)