King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s prime minister on Tuesday, making the 50-year-old lawyer the first woman to lead a government in the North African kingdom, the royal palace said.

The palace said she was tasked with forming a new government after her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won a parliamentary election on September 23. She is the second woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world, after Najla Bouden, who held the office in Tunisia from October 2021 to August 2023.

El Mansouri called the appointment “truly historic” in a televised address. “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.”

PAM took 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, well short of the 198 needed for an outright majority. Its partners in the outgoing coalition, the National Rally of Independents (RNI) and Istiqlal, won 66 and 65 respectively, and the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) won 54. Turnout, seen as a measure of trust in elected institutions, fell to about 38% from around 50% in the previous election five years ago, when the PJD lost heavily after a decade in power, CNN reported.

News outlets differed on the spelling of her name: Euronews wrote “Fatima Zahra Mansouri”, while CNN and Al Jazeera used “Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri”.

Born in Marrakesh in 1976, El Mansouri studied law at the University of Montpellier in France and earned a diploma in Anglo-Saxon business law from New York University, Al Jazeera reported. Elected mayor of Marrakesh in 2009, she was the first woman to hold the post, and returned to lead the city council after the 2021 elections. In October 2021 she became Minister of National Spatial Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Urban Policy, a portfolio that included a direct housing support programme and the rehousing of people affected by the Al Haouz earthquake. CNN and Euronews described her outgoing role as housing minister and urban planning minister respectively.

She is the daughter of Abderrahmane el-Mansouri, a senior local official known as the “pasha of Marrakech” who served as Morocco’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Euronews reported. She faced conflict-of-interest accusations after unidentified hackers alleged she had used her position for personal gain in land transactions in Marrakech; she denied the allegations, called them defamatory and took legal action.

PAM was founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a childhood friend and close adviser to the king, and has presented itself as a counterweight to the PJD, advocating social modernisation and secular-leaning positions. Euronews said about one million of Morocco’s 15.8 million registered voters backed the party, its first election win. CNN reported it was strengthened by the recruitment weeks before the vote of Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco’s football federation chief and two-time government budget manager.

El Mansouri must now assemble a coalition. During the campaign PAM ruled out renewing its alliance with the RNI, after the two traded blame over failures including rising food prices, but she said on Thursday she would have no “red lines” in negotiations. “We have turned the page,” she said. PJD leader and former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane said his party would stay in opposition, as would the left-wing Federation of Democratic Left and other leftist parties.

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy in which the king retains sweeping powers over foreign policy, defence and other key areas. The constitution requires him to name the head of government from the party with the most seats, a requirement won by Arab Spring protesters in 2011; before that, the choice was unrestricted.

The incoming government will oversee the final stages of a $20 billion programme to prepare for the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Portugal and Spain, while delivering on promises to fight inflation, raise wages and create jobs. It must also address widespread youth discontent, highlighted by a mass border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July and deadly youth-led protests last year, CNN reported.

El Mansouri will lead coalition talks in the coming days and submit a list of cabinet members for the king’s approval, the palace said.