Morocco: King Appoints First Woman Prime Minister

What the report says

Morocco has appointed Fatima Zahra Mansouri as the country’s first female prime minister, according to reporting distributed by AllAfrica from Deutsche Welle. The royal cabinet said King Mohammed VI asked her to form the next government after her center-right Authenticity and Modernity Party won last week’s parliamentary election.

Mansouri is a senior figure in PAM and previously served as mayor of Marrakesh, where she was also the city’s first woman mayor. The party won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, leaving it ahead of the other contenders, although the election was marked by low turnout.

Under Morocco’s constitution, the king appoints the prime minister but must choose from the party that wins the most seats. Mansouri now faces the task of building a governing coalition and addressing issues that her party says are central to voters, including inflation, wages and jobs.

The appointment is notable beyond Morocco as well: Mansouri is reported to be only the second woman in the Arab world to hold the office of prime minister, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden. Morocco is also preparing for major investment commitments linked to co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which adds to the expectations on the new government.