Morocco’s king on Tuesday selected a female prime minister to head the government for the first time in the country’s history.
King Mohammed VI named Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, a lawyer and politician from the centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party, to form a new government, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Royal Household published on the state news agency Maghreb Arab Presse.
In her first briefing to reporters after being named as prime minister, Ms. El Mansouri referred to her selection as “historic,” and framed it as a win for all women in Morocco.
“This isn’t just pride for me but pride for all women,” she said. “This is a message to all women in the kingdom.”
Her selection to lead the government comes after legislative elections last week that were characterized by low turnout — the lowest in nearly two decades — amid widespread frustration over unemployment and poor public services, as well as concern about an exodus of Moroccans from the country in search of better economic opportunities.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy, and the king appoints a prime minister from the party that wins the most seats in legislative elections. The Authenticity and Modernity Party, founded by a childhood friend and close adviser to the king, won 97 of 395 seats last week, far short of a majority.
Ms. El Mansouri, who is the mayor of Marrakesh and Morocco’s minister of urban planning and housing, will need to form a governing coalition with other leading parties, which she pledged to do promptly.
The king had received Ms. El Mansouri at the Royal Palace in Rabat, the capital, ahead of the announcement, and video published by Moroccan news media showed the two greeting and speaking on Tuesday.
She had not been widely considered the most likely contender for the role of prime minister until recently. Fouzi Lekjaa, a member of Ms. El Mansouri’s party who is budget minister and the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, had been seen as a likely choice, given that the king is betting that Morocco’s co-hosting of the 2030 soccer World Cup will bolster the country’s economy, mood and image.
Ms. El Mansouri, 50, was the first woman to serve as Marrakesh’s mayor, in 2009. She studied law in Morocco, France and the United States, practiced real estate law in Marrakesh and is the daughter of a prominent Moroccan lawyer, Abderahman El Mansouri. Her father had served as a local official in Marrakesh, as well as leading the city’s legal bar organization and serving as Morocco’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
The selection of a woman to lead the government highlights the progress on gender rights in Morocco under legal reforms made by the king, who has reigned for 27 years. But while revisions to the Moroccan family code have granted women increased rights, they remain vulnerable, some analysts say.
Ms. El Mansouri’s appointment fits a narrative the state has promoted of Morocco as a modernizing Muslim country that recognizes women’s advancement.
But visible women in prominent government roles have advanced faster than the status of most women in a kingdom where reform has usually been driven, and settled, by the palace. Ms. El Mansouri’s experience as a member of an established family does not necessarily reflect the reality of many women in Morocco.
“From the perspective of the regime, having a woman prime minister is hugely consequential,” said Intissar Fakir, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, who researches the politics of North Africa and the Sahel.
Ms. El Mansouri is only the second female prime minister in North Africa and the Arab world, following Najla Bouden Romdhan of Tunisia, who was selected in 2021.
“It’s going to resonate internationally,” Ms. Fakir said.
But Ms. El Mansouri “is not a blank slate,” Ms. Fakir added, noting that the new prime minister has faced criticism as mayor and as housing minister for some of her policies and actions. Last year, Ms. El Mansouri faced accusations of conflict of interest — which she denied — in connection with a major land sale involving her family, and she had been accused of using her influence to ensure development approvals on land that had been characterized as agricultural.
Ms. Fakir said that “It would hard to find people in Marrakech who can speak of effective municipal services under her leadership.”
She predicted that the progressive image Morocco was seeking to project internationally with the selection of Ms. El Mansouri could “clash with the hard reality of her background and track record” domestically.
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