Morocco’s Istiqlal Party has settled, once and for all, a question that had kept political observers guessing for days: whether the country’s oldest nationalist movement would join the governing coalition being assembled by Fatima Zahra Mansouri, the Party of Authenticity and Modernity leader tasked with forming Morocco’s next government. Meeting in national council session on Saturday afternoon, Istiqlal’s leadership voted unanimously to take part, closing out one of the more closely watched subplots in the kingdom’s post-election government formation.
The council handed its secretary-general, Nizar Baraka, full authority to negotiate directly with Mansouri over the terms of that participation — how ministerial portfolios will be divided, how much weight Istiqlal will carry within the future cabinet, and which party figures will be put forward for sector-specific roles. Granting such a sweeping mandate to a single negotiator is itself a signal of how much internal consensus the decision commanded.
Addressing party delegates, Baraka praised what he described as strong turnout and engagement from Istiqlal’s regional branches, singling out the performance of the party’s chapter in Laâyoune, long considered a stronghold in Morocco’s southern provinces. The remark was no throwaway line: party rootedness in the Sahara provinces continues to be read in Rabat as a barometer of popular support for the kingdom’s institutional choices there, at a moment when Morocco’s position on its territorial integrity remains a central reference point across the political spectrum.
Baraka also stressed what he called a substantial alignment of views with Mansouri on the shape of the incoming government, calling for a cohesive, results-oriented team capable of repairing public trust in state institutions — a pointed contrast with the friction that has surfaced in recent days among other parties jockeying for ministries.
Istiqlal’s accession gives Mansouri’s emerging majority a considerable boost. The party commands a sizable parliamentary bloc, and its unanimous backing removes one of the larger uncertainties hanging over the coalition-building process as the self-imposed deadline for presenting the new cabinet to King Mohammed VI draws near. Several portfolios remain contested, notably by the Popular Movement, which is separately pressing to retain at least three ministerial posts in the next government.
