Morocco names new government with key ministries unchanged

RABAT - Morocco's King Mohammed VI named a new government on Thursday after last month's election, keeping the foreign and interior ministers in place but appointing Nadia Fettah Alaoui as finance minister, the state news agency reported.

The new government's main task will be to implement a development model that the palace has commissioned aimed at reducing inequality, cutting poverty and fostering growth.

Aziz Akhannouch, appointed prime minister after his liberal RNI party came first in the election, has formed a coalition with the liberal PAM and the conservative Istiqlal parties.

Akhannouch said that the new government “brings together competencies and will seek to meet the aspirations of citizens through the implementation of the Royal project of the new development model.”

The three parties command a comfortable majority in the parliament, with a combined 270 seats compared to the 198 needed to pass legislation.

The new finance minister, Alaoui, who was tourism minister in the previous government, will be one of seven women in the cabinet, including the former mayor of Marrakech, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri.

The head of the PAM party, Abdellatif Ouahbi, was appointed justice minister and Istiqlal leader Nizar Baraka took the portfolio covering equipment and water.

“The government, which is aware of the high expectations of citizens, will work to address the major issues that arise,” said Akhannouch.

The moderate Islamist PJD party, which had been the largest after the previous two elections and whose leaders have served as prime ministers since 2011, crashed to a heavy defeat and said it would join the opposition together with leftist parties.