RABAT — King Mohammed VI on Monday appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as prime minister of Morocco, making the 50-year-old lawyer the first woman to lead a Moroccan government, CNN and Le Monde reported. The appointment is a historic first for the North African kingdom.
El Mansouri leads the Authenticity and Modernity Party, known as PAM, which won 97 of the 395 seats in parliament in the recent elections, according to the reports. The party will need coalition partners to reach the 198 seats required for a governing majority.
With 97 seats secured, PAM must assemble alliances accounting for more than 100 additional seats to command a majority in the 395-member chamber. The coalition-building process will determine the shape of the new government.
Before her appointment, El Mansouri served as Morocco’s housing minister and as mayor of Marrakech, according to the reports. Her background spans both national government service and municipal leadership in one of the country’s most prominent cities.
She is the second woman to become prime minister in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Bouden, CNN and Le Monde reported. Her appointment places Morocco among the small number of Arab states to have entrusted the premiership to a woman.
Voter turnout in the parliamentary elections stood at about 38 percent, according to the reports. El Mansouri takes office as Morocco enters the final phase of preparations for the 2030 World Cup, which it will co-host with Portugal and Spain at an estimated cost of about $20 billion. Her government will oversee the final phase of those preparations.