At the Royal Palace in Rabat on Wednesday, King Mohammed VI held an audience with Fatima Zahra Mansouri, the head of government tasked with forming Morocco’s new executive team, in what amounts to the clearest signal yet that the country’s lengthy government-formation process is entering its final stretch.
According to a statement from the Royal Cabinet, Mansouri briefed the Sovereign on the stages already completed in assembling the future cabinet, including ongoing consultations with the political parties expected to make up the governing coalition. The King wished her success in her mission and stressed that the period ahead calls for comprehensive mobilization and serious, responsible governance, in keeping with the scale of the challenges facing the country and the expectations voiced by citizens across all levels of society.
The Royal Cabinet noted that the audience falls within the King’s constitutional prerogatives and reflects his ongoing attention to the smooth functioning of the Kingdom’s institutions, a reminder that carries particular weight during a government transition, when Morocco’s Constitution assigns the monarch an arbitration role safeguarding continuity of the state.
The meeting comes just days after the House of Representatives completed the formation of its bureau and standing committees under newly elected Speaker Ahmed Touizi, meaning the parliamentary and governmental tracks are now both converging toward completion. The near-simultaneous progress on both fronts suggests an intent to finalize the country’s new institutional architecture, born out of the latest legislative elections, without further delay.
For seasoned observers of Moroccan politics, the Sovereign’s choice of words, underlining the scale of challenges and public expectations, reads as a pointed message to the incoming team: the time for negotiation is giving way to the time for delivery. What remains unclear is how quickly Mansouri will finalize her ministerial line-up and present it before both chambers of Parliament, the last procedural hurdle before the new government can formally take office.
