El Mansouri government: an expanded team, a course to keep

Thirty-two members, four in the majority and several titles redrawn: the government appointed by the King Mohammed VI on Friday enters into office with a more expanded team and a heavy agenda. Between continuity in key positions and political signals, its composition calls for a reading beyond the names. King Mohammed VI presided over the ceremony appointing the members of the new government on Friday, October 16, at the Royal Palace in Rabat, led by Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri. The team unites the head of the government, twenty ministers and eleven delegated ministers, from the coalition formed by the PAM, Istiqlal, USFP, and PPS. The regal positions are renewed: Abdelouafi Laftit remains in the Interior, Nasser Bourita in Foreign Affairs, Abdellatif Ouahbi in Justice, and Ahmed Toufiq in the Husseins and Islamic Affairs. Fouzi Lekjaa takes the reins of Economy, Finance, and Public Performance, Nizar Baraka of Equipment, Water, and Forests, while Nabil Benabdallah inherits National Education and Youns Bjijou of Health and Social Protection. Several titles evolve. Ahmed Rahhou leads a new ministry of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, and Administrative Reform, assisted by Aïcha Guellaa, delegated minister in charge of Administrative Reform. Khalid Hatimy leads Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, and Food Sovereignty, and Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid leads Youth, Culture, and Sports, a department that no longer bears the title of Communication. The schedule leaves no room: the Finance Bill 2027 must be tabled before October 20, and the team must simultaneously present its program to Parliament. An architecture adjusted to the margin, titles to be transformed into policies Contacted by Hespress FR, Azzedine Hannoun, professor of public law at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Ibn Tofaïl University, comments on the composition of the Executive, whose size is, in his view, the first distinguishing feature. He recalls that it comprises 32 members: the head of the government, twenty ministers and eleven delegated ministers, from a coalition of four parties. The academic insists on the need to compare this number with the outgoing team in an equivalent scope. The first government had 24 ministers, he notes, and the restructuring of October 2024, which introduced State secretaries, brought it to 30 members. The expansion is therefore real but measured, he estimates. He explains it in large part by the shift from a three-party majority to a four-party majority, each component having to be represented, and by the desire not to multiply intermediate ranks. Beyond arithmetic, the essential will be the cohesion of the team and its capacity to lead effective policies in the face of the country's challenges, he advances. The schedule leaves little respite, he emphasizes, between the submission of the Finance Bill 2027 before October 20 and the parallel presentation of the government program before Parliament. On the architectural level, the professor notes limited reconfigurations that do not touch on the substance of the government's mission. The departments of sovereignty and the holders of key positions are renewed, which ensures the continuity of the State's action. He then points out that the portfolio of Communication no longer appears in the title of the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Sports, which has become the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Sports. In his view, one can see the desire to leave the National Press Council (CNP) full latitude to play its role in regulating the sector. He immediately nuances this: this reading remains an interpretation, and only the presentation of the government program will show what happens to the corresponding responsibilities. The Communication department does not just manage the press, he points out. Two titles particularly capture his attention, continues Azzedine Hannoun. He first mentions the creation of a ministry of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, and Administrative Reform, entrusted to Ahmed Rahhou, then the inscription of food sovereignty into the title of the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, and Food Sovereignty, led by Khalid Hatimy. These choices are in line with royal orientations, he specifies. But they must not remain at the semantic level, he warns: a new label is only valid if it is accompanied by structures (directorates, departments, human and budgetary resources) and measurable objectives. Only on this condition will these titles become public policies, he concludes on this point. Finally, the professor of public law sees in this composition a political dimension taken for granted. In his view, it marks the return of figures from the Benkirane team, such as Nabil Benabdallah, appointed to National Education, and Charafat Afailal, to Energy, Mines, and Sustainable Development. He also sees personalities strongly rooted in political action, adding that he cites Samir Belfkih, Najwa Koukouss, Ahmed Mehdi Mezouari, and Rachid Hamouni. This orientation reflects, in his view, the desire to give the government a more political color than technical, after a legislature where the Executive was often blamed for a lack of political mediation. It does not dispense with the demand for effectiveness, he warns: it is on results, rather than profiles, that the team will be judged.