King Mohammed VI of Morocco stands alongside Prime Minister Fatima Zahra El Mansouri and members of the government appointed on October 16, at the Royal Palace in Rabat, on October 16, 2026.

DRISS BEN MALEK/MAGHREB ARABE PRESSE/AFP It took a little more than three weeks after Morocco's September 23 parliamentary elections for the country's new government to be announced. On Friday, October 16, 32 ministers were sworn in before Mohammed VI, at the Royal Palace in Rabat. As protocol demands, Prime Minister Fatima Zahra El Mansouri was the first to bow before the monarch in the throne room.

The main development was not a surprise: Fouzi Lekjaa took over the finance and economy ministry. Lekjaa, a civil servant who previously served as budget minister under former prime minister Aziz Akhannouch (in office 2021-2026), was rewarded for having switched his allegiance. While he was never previously affiliated with any party, he joined the Parti Authenticité et Modernité (PAM), which won the elections, two months before the vote. Lekjaa heads the Moroccan Football Federation, and the king has tasked him with organizing the next football World Cup (alongside Spain and Portugal). Now, he will also manage the country's public spending in the run-up to the sporting event, set for 2030.

Artificial intelligence is another field in which Morocco is pursuing its ambitions, and so, for the first time, it now has a dedicated ministry. This portfolio was entrusted to 68-year-old Ahmed Rahhou, who previously served as president of the Competition Council. Rahhou, the former head of the agro-industry company Lesieur Cristal's Morocco branch and former ambassador to the European Union, was chosen over scientist Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni. Seghrouchni, who hails from the CNRS-Sorbonne University's computer science laboratory, had previously been tasked with the digital transition portfolio.