By Ghazali Ibrahim
Morocco has made history after King Mohammed VI appointed 50-year-old lawyer Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country’s first female prime minister.
The appointment was announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, following parliamentary elections in which El Mansouri’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) emerged with the highest number of seats.
El Mansouri, who previously served as Morocco’s urban planning and housing minister and mayor of Marrakech, has now been tasked with forming a new government.
Her party won 97 of the 395 seats in parliament, meaning she will need to negotiate with other parties to form a governing coalition.
A law graduate from the University of Montpellier in France, El Mansouri joined PAM when it was created in 2008 and rose through its leadership ranks. She has twice served as mayor of Marrakech and became a member of parliament before joining the cabinet.
Her appointment makes her only the second woman to serve as head of government in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who became prime minister in 2021.
As prime minister, El Mansouri will oversee preparations for Morocco’s co-hosting of the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal, while her government is also expected to tackle unemployment, inflation, wages and economic growth.
Her historic appointment marks the first time since Morocco’s independence that a woman has been selected to lead the government.
