El Fassi named as Morocco's new Prime Minister

20/09/2007

King Mohammed VI has appointed Istiqlal Secretary-General Abbas El Fassi as Morocco's new Prime Minister, in line with the results of the September 7th legislative elections in which Istiqlal took first place with 52 seats in the lower chamber of the Moroccan Parliament.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat - 19/09/07

[Getty Images] Abbas El Fassi (left) confers with King Mohammed VI at the Royal palace in Rabat September 19th.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI received Istiqlal Party leader and former minister of state without portfolio Abbas El Fassi on Wednesday afternoon (September 19th) in Rabat, appointing him prime minister and charging him with conducting consultations with other political parties to form the next government.

The king confirmed that his "appointment of Abbas El Fassi embodies the royal observance of established democratic traditions, and takes into consideration the September 7th poll results which led to the election of the new House of Representatives."

El Fassi's appointment follows a series of meetings between the monarch and the leaders of the country's leading political parties. In order to be met by the king, a party had to obtain 20 seats -- the legal minimum representation required to form a parliamentary group -- in the recent legislative elections.

"His Majesty the King honoured me when he charged me with conducting the necessary consultations with Moroccan parties to form the upcoming government," El Fassi said following the king's announcement. "It is a great honour and a major responsibility that I fully appreciate. I shall start tomorrow with my contacts in the parties, and I will respect the advice of the king so that Morocco may have a government that will be up to the challenges and stakes; a government that will endeavour to find solutions to current problems, especially in the social field."

Commenting on the announcement, Party of Progress and Socialism Secretary-General Ismail El Alaoui told Magharebia, "This appointment was expected because it is logical and conforms to the democratic practices and also to the undertaking His Majesty the King made in his October 2004 speech before the Parliament, in which he said he would appoint the head of the party that wins the biggest number of seats in the Parliament."

El Alaoui added, "I hope the new Prime Minister will be able to form a government that adopts the same approach used by governments since 1998, with an emphasis on the social side and on the realisation of the Moroccan people's expectations in a number of fields, chief among which is employment, social issues and problems of corruption."

El Fassi said earlier that he expected the current majority, consisting of Istiqlal, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the Party of Progress and Socialism, the National Rally of Independents and the Popular Movement Party, would form the new government.

Although the conservative Justice and Development Party (PJD), took the second largest number of seats in the recent legislative elections, El Fassi told a local newspaper last Friday, "It's a matter of principle: we will not see the Istiqlal Party and the PJD in the same government."

El Fassi also said the PJD party "crossed the line" when it said that Moroccan politics were divided between the PJD and the "dirty" parties.

El Fassi, a 67-year-old lawyer, will be Morocco's 29th prime minister. He has served as Housing Minister (1977-1981), Minister of Handicrafts and Social Affairs (1981-1985), Ambassador to Tunisia and to the Arab League (1985-1990), Ambassador to France (1990-1994), and Minister of Employment in 2000. He was elected Secretary-General of the Istiqlal Party in 1988.

Under Article 24 of the Moroccan Constitution, the King appoints the prime minister then the rest of the cabinet at the prime minister's suggestion.