The vote came after hours of closed-door debate in Skhirat. Meeting in an extraordinary session, the national council of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) backed, by majority, an unusually broad delegation of power to Fatima Zahra El Mansouri, the party’s national coordinator and Morocco’s prime minister-designate. The party is now handing her sole authority to negotiate the shape of the next parliamentary majority on her own.
PAM’s green light lands at a pivotal moment in the coalition talks that began once the Interior Ministry confirmed the final results of the legislative elections on September 25. Since then, the leaderships of the top-placed parties have traded rounds of sometimes tense discussions over what a workable governing alliance should look like. The Mouvement Populaire has already signaled its intent to join the cabinet, while pressing for at least three ministerial portfolios for its secretary general. Istiqlal, for its part, saw its leader Nizar Baraka recently have to walk back a public remark about PAM’s own stance, a reminder of how fast positions are shifting and how closely every statement is being read for hidden signals.
By widening its leader’s mandate so dramatically, PAM appears determined to speed up a process that part of public opinion already views as dragging on. Delegates gathered in Skhirat reportedly spent much of the session weighing what kind of coalition would best serve the party’s interests, though they stopped short of publicly drawing red lines around potential partners. That tactical silence is not incidental: it leaves El Mansouri maximum room to assemble, based on the actual balance of power produced by the vote, a government capable of surviving a full legislative term rather than collapsing under its own contradictions within months.
A second round of consultations, to be led directly by the incoming head of government alongside an internal party committee, is expected to open without delay. Political observers in Rabat are bracing for a decisive few days, with several parties already signaling they do not intend to wait indefinitely on the sidelines before showing their hand.
