Today, Thursday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco presided over the inauguration ceremony of members of the new Moroccan government headed by businessman Secretary-General of the National Rally of Independents Aziz Akhannouch, a month after his victory in the parliamentary elections, MAP reported.
The new government team, consisting of 24 ministers, including 7 women, as well as the prime minister, kept the ministers themselves in the sovereign portfolios;
The most prominent of them are Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Al-Tawfiq.
The government line-up included new faces on the political scene - among them several women - most of whom were technocrats.
Akhannouch (centre) with his allies in the government Abdellatif Wehbe (left) and Nizar Baraka (French)
The new Minister of Finance, Nadia Alaoui, who served as Minister of Tourism in the previous government, will be one of seven women in the government, including the former mayor of Marrakesh, Fatima Zahra Mansouri.
The Secretary-General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, Abdellatif Wahbi, took the position of Minister of Justice, while the Secretary-General of the Independence Party, Nizar Baraka, took the water portfolio.
King Mohammed VI commissioned Akhannouch - who has held the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries since 2007 - to form the government, the day after his party, the National Rally of Independents, won the parliamentary elections on September 8.
The government was formed from the National Rally of Independents and Contemporary Authenticity, which are classified within the liberal rank, and the Independence Party, which is described as the conservative party, as well as the sovereign ministries handled by personalities who are not affiliated with parties.
The three parties have a comfortable majority in parliament of 270, compared to the 198 seats needed to pass legislation.
The new government team witnessed the return of the former Minister of the Interior and Morocco's ambassador to Paris, Chakib Benmoussa, to the executive body in charge of the national education portfolio.
Benmoussa headed a royal committee that announced in May a "new development model" that is particularly reliable to reduce social disparities and double the growth rate by 2035.