For the first time in Morocco’s history, the government will be led by a woman. King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, 50, as prime minister, four days after the legislative elections won by her party. “For the first time in our country’s history, a woman is taking on the responsibility of leading the government,” she said in a televised address, calling the moment “truly historic.”
Born in Marrakesh in 1976, El Mansouri earned a law degree from the University of Montpellier in France and a diploma in Anglo-American commercial law from New York University. In 2009 she had already become Marrakesh’s first female mayor, a role she returned to in 2021 as head of the municipal council. In October of that year she joined the government as minister of Territorial Planning and Urban Development, overseeing housing support programmes and reconstruction efforts following the Al Haouz earthquake.
Her party, the PAM (Party of Authenticity and Modernity), founded in 2008, won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives. It is now the country’s leading political force, but an absolute majority requires 198 seats: the new premier’s immediate task is therefore to build a coalition, while some parties, including the Justice and Development Party and the Federation of the Democratic Left, have already announced they will remain in opposition.
The incoming government will have to manage the billions in investment tied to preparations for the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Portugal and Spain. Symbolically, El Mansouri becomes only the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who served from October 2021 to August 2023.
