Morocco appoints Fatima El Mansouri as first woman prime minister

King Mohammed VI has appointed Marrakesh Mayor Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s first woman prime minister after her party won last week’s parliamentary election.

According to PUNCH, the monarch on Tuesday tasked the 50-year-old former housing minister with “forming the new government.”

Her centre-right Authenticity and Modernity Party secured 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, 31 more than its closest rival. However, without an outright majority, the PAM must form a coalition to govern.

El Mansouri, who became Marrakesh’s first female mayor in 2009, returned to the position in 2021.

“Young people are going through a crisis, and we must provide them with answers,” she said during the campaign. “We want to restore their hope, not only through speeches, but through concrete solutions.”

Her party has pledged five per cent annual economic growth, two per cent inflation and at least one million new jobs during its five-year term while addressing unemployment and rising living costs.