King Mohammed VI appointed on Friday, 16 October 2026, at the palace in Rabat, the government led by Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, Morocco’s first woman head of government. Le Monde wrote on Saturday that little had changed except for women’s place in the executive. RFI counted 32 members, including seven women, and eleven delegate ministers.

El Mansouri, of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), was designated on 29 September after the 23 September elections. RFI described the team as continuity: several sovereign portfolios keep their incumbents, including Interior (Abdelouafi Laftit), Foreign Affairs (Nasser Bourita) and Justice (Abdellatif Ouahbi). Africanews, with AFP, wrote that 13 of 31 ministers from the previous government remain.

The seven women, including the head of government, are the same number as in the previous cabinet, Africanews reported. Besides El Mansouri, full portfolios went to Charafat Afailal (Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development) and Najwa Koukouss (Family, Social Development and Equality). Four other women are delegate ministers, according to le360.

The coalition — PAM, Istiqlal and two smaller left parties — holds, according to RFI, 207 seats in the House of Representatives, above an absolute majority. Africanews wrote 210 of 395. The government still needs a confidence vote. RFI noted that the 2027 budget bill must be tabled by 20 October.

After the royal audience El Mansouri spoke of a programme to meet expectations on living costs, jobs and inequality, and of preparing the 2030 World Cup co-hosted with Spain and Portugal. This article is not an assessment of the term: the team is appointed, not yet confirmed by Parliament.

Image: Fernando Pascullo, Moroccan parliament, Rabat, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive building, not the 16 October 2026 appointment ceremony.

Sources consulted: Au Maroc, un nouveau gouvernement formé, mais peu de changement, sauf pour les femmes — Le Monde; Maroc: 32 membres, dont sept femmes, dans le gouvernement de Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri — RFI.