Overnight World Report · September 30, 2026, 12:31 AM CT
Key Facts
- On Tuesday, Sept. 29, a royal palace statement named El Mansouri prime minister and asked her to form a government.[1][2]
- She is the first woman to head Morocco’s government and the second woman to be prime minister anywhere in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who served from October 2021 to August 2023.[1]
- Her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won 97 of the 395 seats in the lower house. A majority takes 198, so she must build a coalition.[1]
- The Justice and Development Party and the Federation of Democratic Left say they will stay in opposition.[1]
On Tuesday, a royal statement gave Morocco a prime minister the country has never had: a woman.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI named Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri prime minister on Tuesday, making the 50-year-old lawyer the first woman to lead the country’s government and only the second in the Arab world.[1][2] Until her nomination she was Morocco’s urban planning minister and the mayor of Marrakech.[2] (The Associated Press spells her name Fatima Zahra Mansouri; Al Jazeera writes Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri.)
In a televised address she called the moment “truly historic.” “For the first time in our country’s history, a woman is taking on the responsibility of leading the government,” she said. “This is a source of pride not only for me but for all Moroccan women.”[1]
Video: africanews, September 29, 2026 — “Morocco's king appoints the country's first-ever female prime minister”. Matched to this story by shared names and terms in its title; watch the original for full context.
Where It Happened
The pin marks Marrakesh as named in the report, not an exact address. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors. Street photo (2014): J.Ligero & I.Barrios, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
How she got here
The appointment came four days after Morocco announced the results of its parliamentary elections, in which PAM won the most seats.[1][2] PAM has never won before; about one million of the country’s 15.8 million registered voters cast ballots for it, according to the AP.[2]
Ninety-seven seats is far short of a majority. Business Insider Africa reports the next-largest parties: the National Rally of Independents with 66 seats, Istiqlal with 65 and the Justice and Development Party with 54. It also reports turnout of about 38%, down from about 51% in 2021.[4]
The AP notes that Morocco’s electoral system makes it hard for any single party to win an outright majority.[2] PAM says it is willing to work with all parties, and El Mansouri has said there will be no “red lines” in coalition talks.[1][4]
Who she is
El Mansouri was born in Marrakech in 1976 and studied law, earning an advanced-studies diploma from the University of Montpellier in France and a diploma in Anglo-Saxon business law from New York University.[1] She was first elected mayor of Marrakech in 2009, the first woman to hold that office, and returned to lead the city council after the 2021 elections.[1] She has also served in parliament and, from October 2021, in the national government as a minister for spatial planning and urban development.[1]
She joined PAM when it was founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a childhood friend and close adviser of the king, and became one of its top leaders in 2024.[1][2] The AP adds that she is the daughter of Abderrahmane El Mansouri, the “pasha of Marrakech,” a senior local official who was also Morocco’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.[2]
What the king can and cannot do
The constitution gives the king the power to appoint the prime minister, but he must choose from the party that wins the most seats. Arab Spring protesters pushed that change through in 2011; before it, the king could name anyone.[2][3] PAM finished first, so the choice of party was fixed. Choosing a woman to lead it was the king’s to make, and Morocco’s monarchy keeps substantial powers over the state.[4]
What comes next
Her first job is the coalition. Then comes the work the government has been handed: the AP says it is expected to steer billions of dollars of investment linked to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal, while trying to deliver on promises to fight inflation, raise wages and create jobs.[1][2] It is the first government to take office since the Ceuta migration crisis last July and deadly youth-led protests last year.[2]
A question she has denied
Before her nomination, a group of unidentified hackers claimed El Mansouri had used her position for personal gain in Marrakech land transactions. She denied the allegations, called them defamatory and took legal action, according to the AP.[2][3]
Why we are covering it
Kemetic Minds follows governance and power across Africa. Morocco’s change at the top of its government is one of the week’s clearest developments in North African politics, and every fact above comes from the reporting linked below.
How to Verify This Yourself
Read the original reports at Al Jazeera, PBS NewsHour (Associated Press), Euronews and Business Insider Africa. Those pages are the primary sources for everything above. Where outlets differ (Business Insider Africa says six days passed between the results and the appointment; the AP and Al Jazeera say four), this post follows the two that agree.
References
- Al Jazeera. ‘Truly historic’: Morocco’s king appoints first woman prime minister. September 29, 2026. ↩
- Associated Press, via PBS NewsHour. Morocco’s king appoints Fatima Zahra Mansouri as country’s 1st woman prime minister. ↩
- Euronews. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI appoints Fatima Mansouri as the country’s first female prime minister. September 30, 2026. ↩
- Business Insider Africa. Morocco gives North Africa its second female prime minister in another milestone for women in the Arab world. ↩
Investigative methodology: this post was first produced automatically from the Business Insider Africa report alone. It was revised by hand from four independent reports (Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, Euronews and Business Insider Africa). Quoted words are verbatim from those reports. The video is from Africanews and was matched to this story by shared names and terms in its title.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
Verified NewsroomPrimary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.