Fatima Zahra Mansouri: manners that could change Morocco
- What does she need to do to become prime minister?
- Revolution within the PAM
- The World Cup that heals, not dazzles
- Women in power: the shadow of the pioneers for Fatima
- Morocco: a society in flux
- Conclusion
She has been mayor of Marrakesh twice (2009-2015 and 2021-present) and, since 2023, is the first woman to lead a majority party such as the PAM, the country's second largest political force. She is the current Minister of Urban Planning, a position she has held since the last parliamentary elections in 2021, after spending more than a decade in opposition to the two governments led by Morocco's Islamists since 2011.
Her career embodies the contradiction of a Morocco caught between tradition and modernity. But could she become the first female head of government in the kingdom? The answer ranges from scepticism to historic hope, especially when the whole country is deeply involved in preparations for the 2030 World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Spain.
What does she need to do to become prime minister?
To achieve this, the president (as PAM militants like to call her) must challenge the canons of economic and conservative power in an Islamic country with more than 6 million Moroccans living in the West and only 14 kilometres from Europe, where the power of money in politics has become a force that influences more than it did years ago.
It should also be remembered that, according to Article 47 of the Moroccan Constitution, it is the King who appoints the head of government from among the representatives of the political party that has won the most seats in the elections to the Council of Representatives, taking into account the election results. She would then have to seek possible coalitions among the 34 parties that exist in the country.
But even so, ‘manners beat money’ التاويل غلب التجارة
This Tetouan proverb has been at the heart of every act and action of Fatima Zahra Mansouri since she began her political career, the woman who could become the first democratically elected head of government of a Sunni Islamic country in the Kingdom.
Revolution within the PAM
Her revolution is ethical: ‘I would rather lose power than my name,’ she always repeats.
That is why, in 2021, when corrupt PAM barons tried to place candidates, she stood up to them: ‘It's them or me.’ She won. Today, her party governs four of the twelve regions and two of the five largest cities in the country.
Meanwhile, her party's youth platform, called Jeel 2030 (Generation 2030), trains young people in municipal oversight, public speaking and presenting their ideas on TikTok and Instagram. She is crystal clear: ‘They are not the future: they are the engineers of the present.’
The World Cup that heals, not dazzles
The reality is that Fatima Zahra Mansouri, in her heart and in her thoughts, is committed to organising a 2030 World Cup with the soul of Marrakech and applying a democracy based on Western principles and rooted in a Moroccan Islam that is open to progress and moderate in terms of new laws that give more rights and help the development of the individual and society.
And while other countries squander money on cleaning up their image and trying to buy votes and support abroad, and continue to live in the Cold War era trying to clean up their image with petrodollars and natural gas revenues, Mansouri wants to transform the co-organisation with Spain and Portugal into an act of justice and progress for all Moroccans: she wants, for example, the Hassan II Grand Stadium in Casablanca to finance, among other things, scholarships for girls and boys throughout the Kingdom, and she hopes that the whole dynamic of the World Cup will try to bring routes to villages and bring them closer to the capitals of each region.
At the Fátima Zahra Mansouri PAM, they are convinced of the value of ‘soul-building’ rather than ‘sports-washing’. Mehdi Bensaid, Minister of Culture and Youth, has already demonstrated this on another occasion with South Africa and its leaders, welcoming them to change their position on the Sahara and its autonomy.
And that is why the Tetouan slogan is repeated: ‘Manners do beat money’.
Women in power: the shadow of the pioneers for Fatima
Angela Merkel, Jacinda Ardern and Margaret Thatcher are mirrors in which Mansouri looks at herself with critical eyes:
- From Merkel, she takes pragmatism in managing coalitions in a complex system (with more than 30 parties running for election, and the difficulty this entails in reaching agreements to form a stable government), but rejects the analytical coldness of the German machine; after all, we can say that Marrakech has more charm than Berlin.
- From Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister who confronted misogyny with historic speeches, she inherits the conviction that ‘glass ceilings are broken with action, not lamentations,’ which is why she imposed a 40% quota for women in her party. Fatima did the same and brought in many young people to be the new face of the party and of politics in society.
- And although she shares Thatcher's firmness in the face of corrupt elites (Fatima prefers audits to privatisation), her compass is the common good of Moroccans and the Kingdom of Morocco, and she is committed to social democracy, not neoliberalism.
Morocco: a society in flux
For Fatima, ‘Islam commands us to listen before deciding,’ and when Islamists criticise her ‘westernisation,’ Fatima Zahra Mansouri responds that the democracy she aspires to is not to copy Western models: it is to rescue the true shura (Quranic consultation) and reinvent it, and to assert what she describes as ‘democracy with a Moroccan accent.’
Conclusion
If she wins the 2026 elections, Mansouri will make history not only as a woman, but also for redefining Arab, African and Mediterranean power.
- She will be the Merkel of the Mediterranean when she coordinates with Spain and Portugal in three languages.
- The Thatcher of ethics in Africa by auditing royal contracts.
- The Jacinda for being kind, humble and leading by example when it comes to ‘believing in the power of trust, rather than trusting in power’.
After all, there is only one antidote to oil money and Eastern-aligned conservatives: combining dignity with authenticity and modernity in Morocco. And she proves it every day, step by step, and goal by goal in 2030.
Dr Ayman El Ghazi, doctor at the University of Valencia and political activist and researcher in Moroccan-Ibero-American relations.