20120104
AFP
Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Tuesday named a new government dominated by moderate Islamists who won polls the monarch called early to abort protests inspired by the Arab Spring.

The North African country's new prime minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, whose moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) took the most seats in the November election, will lead a broad coalition.

"The king named the members of the new government at the royal palace in Rabat," an official told AFP.

The PJD becomes the first Islamist party to run the Arab world's oldest monarchy, with a 30-minister government that includes 24 new faces.

But with 107 MPs, Benkirane's movement could not control the 395-seat parliament alone and formed a broad coalition with other parties, including conservative monarchists, liberals, socialists and ex-communists.

As Tunisia and Egypt ousted their longtime dictators through popular uprisings early last year, Morocco's king nipped swelling protests in the bud by offering constitutional reform that curbed his near absolute powers.

The July referendum was overwhelmingly adopted and, while it was still the monarch who officially named the government on Tuesday, the line-up was based on recommendations made by Benkirane.

The PJD will hold the largest number of portfolios in the new government with 12, including the justice ministry, formerly one of the "sovereign ministries" the monarch would hand to close aides not necessarily affiliated to any party.

According to an official statement, the new foreign minister, Saad Eddine el Othmani, is also a PJD member.

The new coalition also includes the Istiqlal (Independence) party, which came second in the November election with 60 seats, as well as the liberal Popular Movement, of which the PJD was initially a splinter.

The Socialist Union of Popular Forces, founded by the iconic opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, came third in the election but opted out of the coalition talks.

An opinion poll released last month found that more than 80 percent of Moroccans were confident Benkirane could lead the country's new government.

Benkirane will have his work cut out as the 35-million-strong nation grapples with soaring unemployment, one of the region's lowest literacy rates and the rising prices of basic commodities.

Benkirane's party claims its ideology is inspired by Turkey's eponymous ruling party (AKP), also cited by the new rulers of Tunisia and Libya.

The new prime minister, whose party also took the social affairs portfolio in the new line-up, has stressed however that he would focus his government's action on creating jobs and tackling corruption.

Maghreb countries' European trade partners have expressed concern that the accession to power of Islamists in Tunisia and Libya could undermine gender equality and basic social freedoms.

"Let Europeans be assured that I will not interfere in people's private lives," he said in an interview last month. "Don't count on me to go around checking the length of women's skirts."