Infantino’s man who could win the elections in Morocco

Just as alarm bells are ringing in Spain over a possible new wave of migrants heading for Ceuta, one of Infantino’s men could win today’s Moroccan elections and become prime minister – even by promising football fans that the final of the next World Cup will be held in Casablanca. He is 56-year-old Fouzi Lekjaa: an engineer and former financial executive of Berber ethnicity who, having gained popularity as a football club director since 2014, is now president of the Moroccan Football Federation, and has indeed distinguished himself as one of the most ardent supporters of the FIFA president, from whom he secured his country’s place among the organisers of the 2030 World Cup, alongside Spain and Portugal. Even under his presidency, Morocco had already achieved a historic qualification for the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, becoming the first African country to do so. He also oversaw the final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, in which Morocco were declared champions following Senegal’s withdrawal. The match ended in serious tensions between Senegalese supporters and the Moroccan police forces responsible for stadium security.

Since 2021 also Minister Delegate for the Budget and, from 2025, First Vice-President of the African Football Confederation, Fouzi Lekjaa burst onto the electoral scene by aligning himself with the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which was founded in 2008 by a close adviser to King Mohammed VI and is now the second-strongest party, with 87 of the 395 MPs. Formally, its leader is Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, mayor of Marrakesh and Minister for National Planning, Urban Planning, Housing and Urban Policy. Fouzi Lekjaa is not even standing as a candidate. However, it is considered highly likely that the PAM, whose symbol is a tractor, will become the largest party, and that Fouzi Lekjaa will be appointed Prime Minister.

This is the twelfth time that parliamentary elections have been held in Morocco since 1956, the year of independence. Polling stations opened today at 8.00 local time (9.00 in Italy) and will close at 19.00 (20.00 in Italy). There are 15,801,162 registered voters out of an electorate of 26 million people. Naturally, the crisis in Ceuta played a major role in the election campaign, with 72,000 people crossing the border of the Spanish exclave between 29 and 30 July. In Madrid, Fernando Grande Marlaska, Minister of the Interior in Pedro Sánchez’s government, expressed “concern” over warnings circulating on social media about possible new mass arrivals coinciding with the vote. “The intelligence and information services are monitoring open sources and are cooperating constantly with Moroccan intelligence to assess these alerts,” he stated at a press conference in Ceuta itself, broadcast live by the TVE broadcaster. It is true that a previous call on social media to cross the border on 20 September did not result in any significant numbers of people entering. However, Grande Marlaska confirmed that security at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla is being stepped up, with “three platoons from the Police Prevention and Response Unit”. 

In Morocco, all this has led to a climate of disappointment, compounded by memories of the protests a year ago. These were led by young people from what was dubbed ‘GenZ 212’ – Generation Z plus the national telephone prefix – with slogans against corruption, in favour of public healthcare and against unemployment. However, many protesters were arrested and remain in prison. In 2021, just over 50 per cent of registered voters turned out, and turnout is expected to be even lower this time. 

There are 11 parties represented in Parliament, 227 outgoing MPs who have chosen to stand for re-election, and 7,288 candidates across 27 parties in the running. Polls suggest that the PAM is overtaking the National Rally of Independents (RNI), a traditional monarchist party that, in a country with unemployment at 10.8 per cent, has failed to keep its promise to create one million jobs, even though it is now putting forward the same pledge again. The same promise is being made by the PAM and the former communists of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), whilst the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) is content with 250,000 jobs in industry, while the Islamists of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) are calling for the 35-year age limit for public sector recruitment to be removed. In the polls, the PJD is vying for first place with the PAM and the nationalists of Istiqlal, both around 18 per cent, whilst the RNI is at 15 per cent, the PPS at 8 per cent, the USFP above 6 per cent and the two liberal parties above 5 per cent.    

However, the final stages of the election campaign were shaken above all by Fouzi Lekjaa’s promises. Not just football-related ones, it must be said, although the slogan “Sir, Sir, Sir” chanted by his supporters – “Come on, come on, come on” – is linked primarily to his achievements as a football executive. “We will not allow women to die in childbirth in our hospitals due to a lack of care and equipment,” he said at one of the four rallies he held each day: a reference to the deaths of patients at a healthcare facility in Agadir in the summer of 2025, an event that had sent shockwaves through the country and sparked the GenZ 212 protests. This may seem to contradict the fact that he is also part of the government, but the attacks during the campaign were primarily directed at the three parties that formed the coalition government: RNI, PAM and Istiqlal. 

Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies, Minister Fouzi Lekjaa defended a budget he considers sound. By 2025, the state’s ordinary revenue is set to reach 424 billion dirhams, representing an increase of 14.2 per cent. The public deficit would have been kept to 3.5 per cent, whilst the Treasury’s debt would have fallen to 67.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, compared with 67.7 per cent in 2024. Over the same period, expenditure on social protection would have risen to 37.7 billion, compared with 32 billion the previous year. However, he did not hide the limitations of his actions, and in a video he admitted that the resources mobilised to support purchasing power “did not enable the desired objectives to be achieved”, whilst pointing out that his powers are exercised under the authority of the Head of Government and the Minister for the Economy and Finance. “Lekjaa, the awaited Mahdi”, as the satirical weekly *Le Canard Libéré* described him, comparing him to that descendant of the Prophet who will be tasked with restoring justice and peace on Earth.