King Appoints Morocco’s First Woman Prime Minister
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has named Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as prime minister, making the 50-year-old the first woman to hold the role in the kingdom and the third woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world.
El Mansouri as on Tuesday appointed as Morocco’s first woman prime minister after her liberal-centrist party came out on top in a September 23 parliamentary election, the royal palace said.
The king asked El Mansouri to form a new government, the palace said in a statement.
El Mansouri, a lawyer who was housing minister in the outgoing government and Marrakech mayor, will lead talks to form a coalition government and submit a list of cabinet members for the king’s approval.
El Mansouri’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) was created in 2008 by an adviser to the king and has since positioned itself as a counterweight to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) by advocating social modernisation and secular-leaning views.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy where the king retains sweeping powers over foreign policy, defence and other key portfolios.
The royal palace said in a statement on Tuesday that El Mansouri, an urban planning minister and the mayor of Marrakesh, was tasked with forming a new government.
Under Morocco’s constitution, the king appoints the head of government from the political party that wins the largest number of seats in the House of Representatives.
El Mansouri said in a televised address 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 said. “This is a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women.”
The appointment came four days after the results of last week’s elections were announced, with El Mansouri’s monarchy-aligned Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) winning the most votes to secure 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, Morocco’s lower house of parliament.
PAM fell well short of the 198 seats needed for an outright majority and will need to build a coalition in order to govern, which will be El Mansouri’s first task.
PAM, founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a friend of the king, has expressed its willingness to work with all parties. But some, including the Justice and Development Party (PJD) and the Federation of Democratic Left, have announced they will remain in the opposition.
Abdelilah Benkirane, former prime minister and leader of the PJD, which won 54 seats, said the party would stay in opposition.
Three leftist parties took smaller shares of the seats.
Turnout, closely watched as an indicator of trust in elected institutions, fell to about 38% from around 50% in the previous elections five years ago, when the moderate Islamist PJD was dealt a crushing defeat after a decade in power.
In recent years, King Mohammed VI had appointed a female adviser and Morocco has had women in senior institutional roles. The outgoing government had four women ministers.
This governing coalition will allocate billions of dollars in investments ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, scheduled to be primarily hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
El Mansouri is the third woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world after Najla Bouden’s tenure in Tunisia from October 2021 to August 2023, and Tunisia’s current Prime Minister Sara Zaafarani, who was appointed in March 2025.
Born in Marrakesh in 1976, El Mansouri studied law, obtaining a diploma in advanced studies from the University of Montpellier in France, as well as a diploma in Anglo-Saxon business law from New York University in the United States.
She entered local governance early, when she was elected mayor of Marrakesh in 2009, becoming the first woman to hold the city’s mayoralty.
After the end of her first term, she returned to lead the Marrakesh municipal council following the 2021 elections. She also accumulated parliamentary experience, being elected as a member of the House of Representatives over successive terms.
In October 2021, El Mansouri moved into national government, appointed as Minister of National Spatial Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Urban Policy.
During her tenure, this portfolio was associated with a number of key files, including the direct housing support programme, reforms linked to urban planning and spatial development and the file on rehousing those affected by the 2023 Al Haouz earthquake.