A lawyer, a mayor, now a prime minister: Who is El Mansouri?

King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco's prime minister, making the 50-year-old the first woman ever to hold the position in the kingdom's history, and only the third woman to serve as prime minister anywhere in the Arab world, after Tunisia's Najla Bouden and Iraq's brief case.

The royal palace said in a statement Tuesday that El Mansouri, who had also served as mayor of Marrakesh and Minister of Housing, was tasked with forming a new government.

Born on January 3, 1976, in Marrakesh, El Mansouri comes from a prominent family with deep ties to the Moroccan state. 

Her father, Abderrahman El Mansouri, served for eight years as pasha, or deputy governor, of Marrakesh before becoming Morocco's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, a background that shaped her early proximity to public life.

She studied in French schools in Marrakesh before pursuing law at France's University of Montpellier, later earning a diploma in Anglo-American business law at Pace University in New York.

She returned to Morocco to practice as a lawyer specializing in commercial and real estate transactions.

Marrakesh's first female mayor

El Mansouri entered politics in 2009, when, at just 33, she was elected mayor of Marrakesh, becoming the first woman ever to lead the city.

She went on to chair the National Council of her party, the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), from 2015 to 2024, before returning to the Marrakesh mayoralty following the 2021 municipal elections.

In October 2021, El Mansouri stepped into national politics, joining the government of then-Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch as Minister of National Spatial Planning, Urban Development, Housing and City Policy, a portfolio she held through this year's elections.

In 2025, she faced allegations of a conflict of interest concerning the sale of family-owned land near Marrakesh, though the matter did not derail her political trajectory.

Her appointment as prime minister came less than a week after her party, PAM, emerged as the largest force in Morocco's September 2026 parliamentary elections, ahead of the outgoing National Rally of Independents (RNI).

Under Morocco's constitution, the king appoints the prime minister from the party that wins the most seats, a process El Mansouri, in a televised address, described as "truly historic."

Those who know her describe a leadership style combining firmness with an ability to listen, qualities she will now bring to bear as she takes charge of forming Morocco's next government.