Morocco swears in first woman PM and 31-member government

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI presided over the swearing-in of a 31-member government at the Royal Palace in Rabat on Oct. 16, 2026, under Prime Minister Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, the first woman to lead a government in the North African kingdom.

The four-party coalition holds 207 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, nine more than the 198 needed for a majority. It takes office after an election in which turnout fell to 38.08 per cent, the lowest since 2007, according to Gulf News.

El Mansouri’s centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won the most seats in the Sept. 23 vote, with 97, ahead of the National Rally of Independents (RNI) with 66, Istiqlal with 65 and the Justice and Development Party with 54, Reuters reported. No party won a majority, so she had to build a coalition.

The king appointed her on Sept. 29. She said she would go into negotiations with “no red lines” and told reporters, “We have turned the page,” Reuters reported. The Justice and Development Party leader, Abdelilah Benkirane, a former prime minister, said his party would stay in opposition.

PAM announced the coalition on Monday, Oct. 12, with Istiqlal, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and the Party of Progress and Socialism, Africanews reported. El Mansouri said she held two weeks of “extensive political consultations” to assemble the majority. The RNI, PAM’s partner in the outgoing government, is not part of the new coalition.

The cabinet keeps Nasser Bourita at Foreign Affairs and Abdelouafi Laftit at Interior, The National reported. Fouzi Lekjaa, head of Morocco’s football federation and a former budget minister, becomes minister of economy and finance. Nabil Benabdallah, leader of the Party of Progress and Socialism, takes the education portfolio, and Charafat Afailal holds energy.

Finances News Hebdo, a Moroccan weekly, listed 31 names, including the prime minister, the secretary general of the government and 29 ministers, some of them ministers delegate. Seven of the 31 are women, including El Mansouri. The National counted 20 ministers and 11 ministers delegate.

El Mansouri, a lawyer born in Marrakech in 1976, served as the city’s mayor and was housing minister in the outgoing government of Aziz Akhannouch, Gulf News reported. In February 2024 she was named to coordinate PAM’s three-member leadership. Gulf News described her as the second woman to head a government in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden.

The National said the new government’s priorities are unemployment, better education and health services, and the final stages of what it described as a $20-billion preparation for the 2030 World Cup. Morocco will co-host that tournament with Portugal and Spain. Spain, which votes in a general election on Nov. 29, is the other European host. FIFA is also considering a larger World Cup format.

The Canadian connection is mainly human. The 2021 census counted 99,980 people of Moroccan origin in Canada, and 81,230 of them, about 81 per cent, lived in Quebec, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Canadians travelling to Morocco can check the federal advisory at travel.gc.ca.

The government has not yet set out a legislative programme. Under the constitution, the head of government presents her programme to parliament, and the king appoints ministers on her proposal, Gulf News reported. The next test is whether the coalition can show results on youth unemployment and the cost of living, the issues that dominated the campaign.

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Via The National, Reuters (through TimesLive), Africanews, Gulf News and Finances News Hebdo. The coalition’s cabinet figures differ slightly between outlets and are attributed above.