Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri has been appointed as Morocco’s first female prime minister following her party’s victory in the parliamentary elections.
King Mohammed VI officially designated El Mansouri on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, tasking her with forming a new government. Under Morocco’s constitutional framework, while the monarch retains ultimate sovereign authority, the constitution mandates selecting the head of government from the political party securing the largest parliamentary bloc.
The 50-year-old lawyer and former Mayor of Marrakesh becomes the second woman in the Arab world to serve as prime minister, following Najla Bouden of Tunisia.
El Mansouri’s preferred candidate was Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and a prominent member of the king’s affiliated Authenticity and Modernity Party (AMP).
Fatima El Mansouri’s government will oversee the final phases of a $20 billion programme to prepare Morocco for the 2030 World Cup, which the country will co-host with Portugal and Spain.
She will also face the challenge of addressing widespread youth discontent through economic initiatives, following a major border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July and deadly Gen-Z-led riots last year.
Backstory…
El Fatima Mansouri stands as one of Morocco’s most prominent political figures.
A legal practitioner by training, she completed her initial studies at Mohammed V University in Rabat before undertaking advanced specialization in corporate and commercial law in France and the United States.
She entered public office following the founding of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) in 2008, making history in 2009 as Marrakesh’s first female mayor. She was subsequently re-elected to the mayoral seat following the 2021 municipal elections.
For the past five years, El Mansouri has managed key national portfolios as Minister of National Planning, Urban Planning, Housing, and Urban Policy within the cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch. In February 2024, she assumed the role of national coordinator for PAM’s leadership collective.
Despite ongoing debates in Morocco over issues such as whether to ban polygamy and grant men and women equal inheritance rights, El Mansouri has rarely spoken publicly about women’s rights or gender inequality throughout her political career.
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