Marrakech – Nizar Baraka, secretary-general of the Istiqlal Party, retracted a statement on Saturday after telling the party’s National Council that the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) had decided to exclude the National Rally of Independents (RNI) from the next government.
Baraka made the announcement in Salé, at the close of his address to Istiqlal’s National Council, which had convened to assess the September 23 legislative elections and weigh the party’s participation in the incoming government.
He told members he had just received word that PAM’s National Council, meeting the same morning in Skhirat, had ruled out any RNI role in the coalition. The claim drew prolonged applause and cheers from the council floor.
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Moments later, Baraka reversed course. He clarified that the information passed to him was not precise enough to stand. A source within Istiqlal told Médias24 that he had acted on inaccurate information.
PAM issued a similar denial. A party source confirmed to Médias24 that its National Council took no decision to bar the RNI from the future majority. During the closed-door debates, however, some participants called for keeping the RNI out of the next government. Those positions surfaced within internal discussions and did not translate into a council ruling.
The episode unfolded as coalition talks remain unsettled. PAM finished first in the September 23 vote and opened consultations with the parties represented in parliament.
An RNI delegation led by the party’s president, Mohamed Chouki, met PAM’s leadership on Wednesday in the first round of those talks. King Mohammed VI then appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, coordinator of PAM’s collective leadership, as head of government – the first woman to hold the post, 18 years after the party’s founding.
The RNI’s position carried particular weight in the arithmetic of a coalition. The party placed second with 66 seats, a result that would have eased the formation of a majority. It had also led the outgoing government after finishing first in the 2021 elections.
At a political bureau meeting in Rabat on Wednesday, the RNI expressed its readiness to join the next government, while leaving the final decision to its National Council, which was set to meet Saturday.
PAM’s National Council, gathered in Skhirat, voted to delegate the negotiation mandate to El Mansouri and a consultation committee comprising Fouzi Lekjaa, Ahmed Akhchichine, and Abdellatif Ouahbi.
The decision followed closed-door deliberations. In her address, El Mansouri pointed to the 38% turnout in the recent vote as a challenge for the parties. Istiqlal’s National Council, for its part, delegated the management of the talks to Baraka.
With no majority formula settled before Saturday’s meetings, the shape of the next coalition remains open.
