Birdsong And Whale Song Show Patterns Similar To Human Language

This is a teaching situation - left is a son and right is the father CREDIT: Kazou Okanoya

 August 7, 2026

By Eurasia Review

Key Takeaways:

• Bengalese finch songs contain statistically coherent sequences of notes (avian “words”) that follow the same Zipfian distribution found in human language—few elements used very frequently, many used rarely.
• These patterns emerge early in the birds’ learning process, mirroring how human infants detect word boundaries by recognising frequently co-occurring sounds.
• Together with earlier findings in humpback whales, the results suggest that culturally transmitted communication systems across distant species independently evolve the same statistical structures that make complex signalling easier to learn and pass on.

Birdsong and Whale song show patterns similar to human language

The songs produced by birds share similarities with the structure of human language, a study shows.

An international team of researchers have uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of Bengalese Finches that has the same statistical patterns found in human languages.

The songbirds – famous for their complex, learned songs – organise their songs using the same mathematical formula found in human speech – a trait that has developed over time which makes complex communication easier to learn and pass from one generation to the next.

The findings build on the team’s previous discovery that humpback whales also rely on the similar systematic structure.

Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with features that mark it out as distinct from the communication of all other species.

The findings suggests that some of language’s most fundamental building blocks may not be uniquely human after all, but a universal feature of learned communication, the researchers say.

The research suggests that like human language the communication processes for songbirds and humpback whales are an evolutionary solution with them being transmitted culturally, meaning that they learn their communication systems from each other.

The team, led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Teikyo University in Japan used methods inspired by how babies discover words in speech, and applied them to song data collected from Bengalese Finches in Japan.

The team observed the Finch songs contained statistically coherent sequences of notes, the avian equivalent of “words”, and these sequences followed the same patterns observed in human language where a few words are used very frequently and others are used more rarely – known as a Zipfian distribution.

Data was collected across the various stage of development of the birds and the patterns were already present during the birds’ earliest attempts at singing, suggesting they emerge naturally as part of the learning process.

The young song birds listen to the sounds around them to unconsciously learn the statistical patterns of the sounds and organise their songs – similar to how babies figure out where one word ends and the next begins by recognising which sounds frequently occur together, the research found.

This statistical process is thought to make language easier to learn, helping infants identify recurring “chunks” of speech within the continuous stream of sounds they hear every day. 

Recently, the lead researchers of this study, together with Dr. Ellen Garland from the University of St. Andrews, found similar statistical patterns in the songs of humpback whales.

The teams says the new findings suggest that some of the fundamental building blocks that make language learnable can emerge wherever communication is learned and passed from one generation to the next – even in the songs of small birds.

Professor Simon Kirby of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, who co-led the research said: “We have become used to the idea that language is unique in the natural world. But by using insights from how babies learn language we’ve been able to take a closer look at birdsong, and have discovered a surprising commonality between these species separated by more than 300 million years of evolution. Both humans and songbirds pass on their communication through culture, and this is what creates the patterns that language and birdsong share. We humans are the only species with language, but we share the planet with several others who also have culturally evolving communication, and this may make us more similar to one another than we previously thought.”

Scientists have long known that songbirds learn their songs by listening to adult birds, much as children learn language from the people around them.

This study goes a step further by showing that the songs themselves are organised according to the same statistical principles that help human babies learn spoken language.

Together with recent discoveries in humpback whales, the findings suggest that evolution may repeatedly arrive at the same solution whenever complex communication must be learned and transmitted across generations, the researchers say.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

The research is co-led by Professor Simon Kirby of the University of Edinburgh, Professor Inbal Arnon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Professor Kazuo Okanoya of the Advanced Comprehensive Research Institute, Teikyo University, Japan.

Professor Inbal Arnon, a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: “People often think language is what makes humans unique. Our findings suggest that some of the fundamental properties that make language what it is can emerge wherever communication is learned and passed from one generation to the next – and that this happens across evolutionarily distant species (humans, Bengalese Finches, humpback whales). This does not mean that human language is not special in other ways, but it gets us closer to understanding what it shares, and does not, with other communication systems in nature. For me, it is really exciting to see how ideas from child language learning can reveal new insights about language evolution and animal communication”

Professor Kazuo Okanoya of the Advanced Comprehensive Research Institute, Teikyo University, Japan, said: “I have studied Bengalese finch song for many years and thought I knew it rather well. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to discover, through this international collaboration, that it shares yet another property with whale song and human language: frequently used chunks of syllables tend to be shorter, while less frequently used chunks tend to be longer – a pattern known as Zipf’s law.”

Ivorian drum, looted by France, goes on display for first time at home

The Djidji Ayokwe, a sacred "talking drum" which was looted by French colonial troops in 1916 and taken to France, arrived in its home village in Côte d'Ivoire on Friday, where local people were able to see it for the first time since it was repatriated in March.


Issued on: 08/08/2026 - RFI

France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati addresses the audience during a ceremony for the official restitution to the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire of the sacred talking drum Djidji Ayokwe, confiscated in 1916 by French colonial authorities from the Ebrie people, at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris on 20 February 2026. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

The ceremony, coinciding with Côte d'Ivoire's national independence day holiday, was the first time today's Ivorians were able to see it.

The imposing wooden drum, more than three metres long and weighing 430 kilogrammes, was used by the Ebrie tribe to transmit messages.

It was officially handed over in February and arrived back in Côte d'Ivoire in March aboard a specially chartered plane but was not taken out of its huge wooden crate.

Côte d'Ivoire had asked in late 2018 for the return of the Djidji Ayokwe among 148 works of art taken during the colonial period.

It is one of hundreds of stolen artefacts Paris is preparing to send back to Africa, aided by the approval in May of a new French law.

On Friday, it was carried in a military parade through the Yopougon district of Abidjan, before continuing on to the village of Adjame, where it was made.

The black, white and red instrument was transported in a glass-fronted case on a large, decorated float and welcomed by Culture Minister Françoise Remarck, traditional leaders and hundreds of local residents.

A dozen people performed a libation ceremony, pouring a few drops of liquid onto the ground as an offering to their ancestors.

"A nation cannot develop if it doesn't preserve its memory and promote its heritage," said Adjame mayor Farikou Soumahoro.

Source of pride

He said he felt "deep emotion and great pride".

"We want to see the drum with our own eyes so we can truly believe it belongs to us," 69-year-old villager Jacqueline Akrebie told French news agency AFP.

Traditional leader Cyriaque Ahoure, 63, said he had come to share a moment of "great joy, when we remembering our ancestors"

The talking drum is much more than a musical instrument. It was used by the Ebrie community to warn of danger – particularly from colonialists, call to war or summon villagers to ceremonies.

It was seized by the French colonial authorities in 1916 before being shipped to Europe in 1929 and exhibited in Paris for decades.

It is due to go on display at the Museum of Civilisations in Abidjan which has been specially renovated.

Senegal and Benin have also asked for the repatriation of their treasures.

The return of cultural artefacts taken from ex-colonies in Africa and elsewhere has become a sensitive issue, with museums, institutions and collectors in Europe and the United States facing pressure to give them back.

 

Wildfire smoke poses growing risk to pregnant women as climate change worsens, US study finds

Copyright Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Giedre Peseckyte

Published on 08/08/2026 EURONEWS

Wildfire smoke is emerging as a growing threat to pregnant women, with new research suggesting that climate-driven fires are exposing more expectant mothers to harmful air pollution even as conventional sources of pollution decline.

The study, published in Frontiers in Environmental Health, tracked exposure to fine particulate matter — PM2.5 — from wildfires across the United States between 2003 and 2019. Researchers found that although emissions from transport and industry have fallen, smoke from increasingly frequent and intense wildfires is offsetting some of those public health gains.

The study found that prenatal exposure to wildfire smoke more than doubled over the 17 years examined, particularly in western US states where longer fire seasons have become the norm. About 65% of days when air quality exceeded safe levels for pregnancy could be attributed to wildfire smoke, research found.

“Increasing wildfire activity is systematically offsetting prenatal air quality gains from [human activity emissions] reductions, disproportionately burdening low-income, rural, and Indigenous communities, with the potential to further erode progress as wildfire activity intensifies,” the researchers said.

PM2.5 — microscopic particles capable of penetrating deep into the lungs and entering the bloodstream — has long been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth and low birth weight. The researchers note that wildfire-generated PM2.5 may be even more toxic than pollution from traffic or industrial sources because of its complex chemical composition.

• 
  
• Wildfires up 57% in Europe in just four years, WHO warns

The findings are likely to resonate far beyond the US

Europe has experienced successive summers of devastating wildfires, from Greece and Portugal to Spain and southern France, prompting warnings from scientists and health authorities that climate change is creating new public health risks alongside the more visible destruction.

The European Union's climate monitoring service and health agencies have repeatedly warned that rising temperatures are increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires, exposing millions of Europeans to smoke that can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres across borders.

As climate change accelerates, experts argue that governments may need to expand public health guidance for vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, by improving smoke forecasting, issuing earlier health alerts and ensuring access to clean indoor air during major wildfire events.

The research highlights an uncomfortable paradox for policymakers: decades of investment in reducing anthropogenic air pollution risk is being undermined by climate change itself. Even as cities become cleaner, extreme weather is creating new sources of pollution that public health systems must learn to manage.

Wildfire prevention requires 'nature-based solutions': Land 'treating us' the way we treat the land


Issued on: 04/08/2026 - FRANCE24



Carys Garland is pleased to welcome Alexander Held, Senior Expert of the Resilience Programme for Integrated Fire Management. Held explains how Europe's escalating wildfire crisis is exposing the limits of a response model built around emergency suppression rather than long-term resilience. He argues that while the European Union has significantly improved its capacity to coordinate firefighting efforts, it continues to intervene only after the fact: once wildfires have already become uncontrollable. His central thesis is that the challenge is no longer primarily one of firefighting but of landscape governance. Climate change may intensify the conditions for extreme fires, yet the scale and destructiveness of these events are also shaped by decades of land abandonment, fuel accumulation, changing agricultural practices, and political incentives that favour highly visible emergency responses over less visible preventive measures.

Video by:  Carys GARLAND

French farmers bracing for smallest corn harvest in 40 years

France's corn harvest is on pace this year for a 35 percent fall to nine million tons, a level last seen in 1980 for Europe's biggest grains producer, the government said Friday.


Issued on: 08/08/2026 - RFI

France's corn harvest is on pace this year for a 35 percent fall to nine million tons, a level last seen in 1980 for Europe's biggest grains producer, the government said Friday 7 August, 2026. AFP/File

The AGPM producers' association had previously forecast a harvest of 9.5 million, down 30 percent from a year ago, owing to a reduction in areas under cultivation.

But new forecasts from the agriculture ministry's statistics department take into account heatwaves that hit the crop in critical stages of its growth cycle.

Yields are estimated to fall to 70.3 quintals per hectare, down 19 percent on the year, under the combined effects of heatwaves and drought.

But farmers have also reduced corn production areas in favour crops like sunflowers, or have chosen to leave land fallow amid rising costs.

Sharp decline

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that the cultivated area will be down by 21 percent this year, and said corn yields had not declined this sharply since 2003.

The war in the Middle East has sent fertiliser costs soaring, but corn prices have not followed suit, as global production remains relatively abundant.

Cereal grains, mainly winter crops, were "less affected by the extreme heat, but experienced excessive winter rainfall", the ministry said.

It has only slightly revised its harvest forecast, published in mid-July, to 46.1 million tonnes, compared with 46.3 million announced in July.

French farmers 'heavily impacted' by climate crisis, both psychologically and economically.


Issued on: 07/08/2026 - FRANCE24


Alison Sargent is pleased to welcome Jean-Mathieu Thévenot, farmer in the French Basque Country, a member of the Confédération Paysanne farmers' union in France, and part of the international movement La Via Campesina. According to Thévenot, 2026 marks a turning point where climate disruption has become an immediate agricultural, economic, and cultural reality. While his own farm has been only partially affected because their production cycle ended earlier in the season, he witnesses the daily struggles of vegetable growers, livestock farmers, and fruit producers across southwestern France.

Video by: Alison SARGENT

Think this summer is hot? El Nino could push temperatures even higher

Record ocean heat, intensifying El Nino conditions and worsening extremes are raising the prospect that 2026 could become the hottest year ever measured.


Issued on: 08/08/2026 - RFI

Flames and smoke rise during a wildfire near Montfort-sur-Argens, in the Var department of southern France, on 1 August 2026. © REUTERS - Manon Cruz

Wildfires are burning across Europe and North America, successive heatwaves have baked major cities and the world’s oceans are warmer than ever recorded at this point in the year.

Yet despite the exceptional conditions, 2026 is not currently the planet's hottest year on record. So far, it ranks third behind 2024 and 2025.

That could change before December.

Scientists say the combination of accelerating human-driven climate change and an unusually powerful El Nino could push 2026 past 2024 – or at least bring it very close. Even if it falls short, experts predict that 2027 will likely to set a new global temperature record, potentially by a significant margin.

“The world is now on fire again with climate change in a way that’s increasingly difficult to ignore,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at US-based research group Berkeley Earth. “It’s going to keep getting worse.”

Hausfather estimates there is now a 35 percent chance that 2026 will become the hottest year recorded, up from just 7 percent in March.

Early warning from oceans

One of the strongest indicators is the extraordinary warmth of the world’s oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the planet.

Daily global sea surface temperatures matched 2024 levels in May and have remained at record highs on almost every day since June. Around 82 percent of the world’s ocean surface has experienced marine heatwave conditions this year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Changes in sea temperatures often take several weeks to appear in global atmospheric readings, says former senior Nasa climate scientist James Hansen, whose warnings about global warming stretch back four decades. He believes the trend indicates that this year will narrowly overtake 2024.

There is an 80 percent chance of the warming El Nino phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said on 2 June 2026. @ AFP - FABRICE COFFRINI

A powerful El Nino could make that even more likely. The natural phenomenon warms parts of the equatorial Pacific, raising average global temperatures and disrupting weather patterns around the world.

Forecasts suggest the developing El Nino could become the strongest ever measured.

El Nino releases heat that has built up in the oceans. But greenhouse gases have ensured there is now much more heat available to release, with the seas absorbing about 90 percent of the excess warmth trapped by emissions.

Scientists stress, however, that El Nino cannot explain the wildfires and extreme temperatures already seen this summer, as its strongest effects are not expected until later in the year.

“The driver of the record warmth is climate change in the background,” said Zachary Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central, a science and communications nonprofit. El Nino, he added, would contribute only around one or two tenths of a degree on top of the longer-term warming trend.

Europe faces repeated heatwaves

Europe has been among the regions most visibly affected this year.

The continent experienced what Copernicus described as an exceptional heatwave in May, followed by another in June, two more in July, and further extreme temperatures across France and Spain in early August.

“What is very unusual for Europe for this particular year is the frequency and extent of the heatwaves,” said Samantha Burgess, Copernicus’s global strategic lead.

In Europe, repeated periods of intense heat can be particularly dangerous because many homes and cities were not designed for prolonged high temperatures. This year's heatwaves have been especially noticeable at night, said Burgess, which disrupts sleep and increases health risks.

A person shelters from the sun in the Tuileries Garden during a heatwave in Paris, France, on 11 July 2026. © REUTERS - Tom Nicholson

What does 50C feel like? Touring ‘heat chamber’ allows people in France to find out

Extreme heat has also struck North and South America and India, while wildfires have burned across several regions.

For Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, this summer’s fires and heatwaves represent what experts have been warning the world faces.

“These are vivid pictures of not just the future, which is what we used to say, but on the whole of what climate change is doing,” he said.

“There’s no question that climate change has increased the risk of wildfires. There’s no question that the climate change increased the probability of really hot, nasty, even unprecedented summers around the world.”

(with AP)

Panama Canal Cuts Draft for Largest Ships as El Niño Intensifies

The Panama Canal is lowering the maximum draft for the largest vessels as water levels in the lake continue to fall (ACP)

Published Aug 6, 2026 2:37 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Panama Canal Authority reported that it is lowering the maximum draft for the largest vessels transiting the canal as it works to stay ahead of the intensifying El Niño weather pattern. The move comes as both the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the World Meteorological Organization have each warned that the current weather pattern is expected to intensify to record levels.

The latest round of restrictions at the Panama Canal is focused on the Neopanamax locks, which are the newer locks created to handle the largest vessels. As such, it will impact containerships as well as the laden LNG carriers and tankers. During the 2023-2024 drought and water restrictions, the authority also imposed restrictions at the locks, which forced many of these vessels to limit their cargoes, or in the case of containerships, they transshipped portions of the load across the isthmus by train.

Effective on August 26, the Panama Canal Authority is lowering the maximum draft for the Neopanamax locks to 48 feet (14.63 meters). A further adjustment is planned for September 3, lowering the maximum draft to 47.5 feet (14.48 meters). 

“The measure is based on current water levels and projected conditions for the upcoming weeks in Gatun Lake,” said the authority. It said it is part of its ongoing water management and operational strategy and benefits from the lessons learned during the 2023-2024 period.

NOAA reported in June that the phenomenon was beginning to form. Forecasters predicted a 63 percent chance of sea surface temperatures exceeding 2.0 degrees C in the Niño-monitored region of the Pacific, which they said would be considered a “very strong” El Niño. NOAA reiterated its forecasts on August 6 for the North Atlantic hurricane season, with the only good news that the strong El Niño is likely to result in a 75 percent chance of below-normal hurricane activity, NOAA forecasters predicted.

However, it is also likely to cause significantly lower rainfall in areas, including the Caribbean and Latin America. The Panama Canal Authority reports that currently the water level in Gatun Lake, which supplies the canal, is at just over 84 feet, down nearly a foot since July. Its forecast further expects the lake to fall to approximately 83 feet by September. 

Gatun Lake’s lowest five-year average water level was just under 84 feet in May. However, in 2023, during the last significant drought, starting in June and through until October, the lake was measured at just over 79 feet as the authority imposed limits on the number of vessels and their drafts.

The canal authority confirmed that the new steps are the fourth and fifth draft adjustments this year, after it lowered the levels for the Neopanamax locks to 49 feet and then 48.5 feet in July. During the 2023-2024 drought, the levels were cut as low as 43.5 feet.

Critically, it emphasizes that currently, it has not changed the number of daily transits. However, as of late July, it suspended the auction for close-in transit slots. In 2023, the canal cut the number of slots to as low as 22 transits per day from the normal of up to 38 a day.

The concern is that the canal is already seeing increased traffic as U.S. energy exports to Asia rose in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, U.S. imports have remained strong. Currently, the canal’s online dashboard shows a total of 70 booked vessels and 35 non-booked vessels waiting for transit, and the average waiting time is increasing. The average is now over six days in both directions, with Neopanamax vessels waiting between two and 11 days. There are currently 15 booked Neopanamax vessels waiting for transit and another 11 without reservations.

Fouzi Lekjaa And The ‘World Cup 2030 Government’: Technocracy, Football, And The Recomposition Of Power In Morocco – Analysis

LONG READ

August 8, 2026

By Dr. Mohamed Chtatou


Key Takeaways:

Fouzi Lekjaa’s entry into PAM in July 2026 marks a significant political shift, positioning the high-profile Budget Minister and football federation president as a potential contender for a major governmental role ahead of the September 2026 elections and the 2030 World Cup.

His rise reflects the growing appeal of a hybrid “popular technocrat” profile that combines administrative expertise, managerial results from football diplomacy, and mass public legitimacy, rather than traditional party activism.

While the “World Cup 2030 government” hypothesis is plausible given the timeline and his skill set, it remains speculative; converting sporting and technocratic success into effective national governance faces real risks of personalisation, limited grassroots roots, and the gap between sectoral management and broad political leadership.

Introduction: From the Pitch to the Premiership?

The official entry of Fouzi Lekjaa into the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), announced on 25 July 2026 during the 32nd session of the party’s National Council held at the Abou Regreg Congress Palace in Salé, constitutes one of the most significant political events of Morocco’s pre-electoral period (Telquel, 2026; Médias24, 2026). For several weeks, rumours had multiplied around a possible partisan affiliation of the current Minister Delegate in charge of the Budget and president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF), without any official confirmation being provided (Le360, 2026a; Mountakhab, 2026). The suspense ended when Fatima-Zahra El Mansouri, national coordinator of PAM’s collegial leadership, announced Lekjaa’s affiliation, together with that of the president of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab Regional Council, Yanja El Khattat, and their immediate integration into the party’s Political Bureau (Le360, 2026b; Maroc Hebdo, 2026).

This development comes at a particularly sensitive political moment. Morocco’s legislative elections are set for 23 September 2026, with an official campaign scheduled from 10 to 22 September (Maroc.ma, 2026a), and PAM now openly asserts its ambition to finish first in the ballot (PAM, 2026a). In this context, the partisan conversion of a figure as widely covered as Lekjaa cannot be reduced to a mere administrative change of label. It opens up a broader question about the transformation of Moroccan elites, the growing place of technocrats in national political life, and, more generally, about the possibility that the Kingdom is progressively entering a phase in which managerial competence, execution capacity, and mastery of large-scale projects become decisive criteria for the selection of leaders.

Hence the hypothesis now formulated by part of the press and Moroccan political circles: Fouzi Lekjaa could be called upon to play a central role in the next government, or even to head what some commentators have begun to call the “World Cup 2030 government.” The French newspaper Le Monde presented Lekjaa’s entry into PAM as a sign that he is “putting on the suit of a prime-ministerial contender” (Aublanc, 2026), while the Moroccan press has echoed the idea that Lekjaa has become, in the eyes of some party members, “a potential future head of government” (Le360, 2026a).


It is nonetheless important to avoid turning this hypothesis into a certainty. The Moroccan Constitution provides that the King appoints the Head of Government from within the party that finishes first in the elections to the House of Representatives, “in light of their results” (Kingdom of Morocco, 2011, art. 47). Consequently, no appointment of Lekjaa can be mechanically inferred from his joining PAM. For such a scenario to become constitutionally conceivable, several conditions would have to be met simultaneously: an electoral victory for PAM, or at the very least a political configuration giving it a dominant position; an actual candidacy by Lekjaa in the legislative elections; his election to Parliament; and finally a royal decision consistent with Article 47. According to Le360 (2026a), PAM’s bylaws would nonetheless allow Lekjaa to be designated head of government in the event of a PAM victory, even without holding a leadership position within the party apparatus, insofar as nothing in the Constitution formally prevents it.

The real question is therefore less whether “Lekjaa will become Prime Minister” than understanding why his name has become politically credible in the first place. This credibility is itself a political phenomenon worth analysing. It reveals an evolution in the Moroccan model of elite recruitment: the traditional politician is progressively giving way to the technocrat capable of translating strategic orientations into concrete achievements. Seen from this angle, Lekjaa represents a particularly interesting figure: a senior financial official, a specialist in budget management, a sports executive, an international negotiator, a central actor in Moroccan football diplomacy, and now a party official.


The hypothesis defended in this essay is that Lekjaa’s political rise should be understood as the product of the convergence of four structural dynamics: the growing technocratisation of Moroccan governance, the politicisation of football as a vector of legitimacy, the strategic centrality of the World Cup 2030 in the national calendar, and the search by parties for a new generation of leaders able to combine administrative efficiency with popular legitimacy. Yet this trajectory also carries significant risks: excessive personalisation of power, confusion between sporting success and governmental competence, weakening of party organisation, and the concentration of public expectations on a single man.

Joining PAM: A Political Event More Than a Simple Party Affiliation

Lekjaa’s entry into PAM carries particular weight because of the party’s position within the Moroccan political system. PAM is part of the current governing majority and, as the 23 September 2026 elections approach, is seeking to strengthen its territorial base and finish first in the ballot. Its National Council of 25 July explicitly reaffirmed this ambition, insisting on the party’s openness to new skills and profiles, and on its attachment to the record of the government in which it participates and to the reforms undertaken (PAM, 2026a). A few days earlier, the party’s Political Bureau had already affirmed its readiness for the 2026 elections while claiming pride in the outgoing executive’s record (PAM, 2026b).


In this context, recruiting Lekjaa carries a double value. For PAM, it represents a considerable acquisition of political capital: according to El Mansouri herself, the arrival of Lekjaa and El Khattat constitutes “added value” for the party because of the experience they have gained in the field and in the management of public affairs (Telquel, 2026). For Lekjaa, it constitutes, conversely, a transition from technocratic and sporting legitimacy toward electoral legitimacy — in a context where his candidacy in the Berkane constituency, his home town, had not yet been formally announced by the party, unlike other local candidacies already listed (Médias24, 2026).

This distinction is fundamental. Until recently, Lekjaa could exercise considerable influence without being a party man. His career rested on financial administration and the governance of football. He belonged precisely to that category of actors that political science literature defines as technocrats: individuals whose authority stems less from a long electoral career than from their administrative and professional competence.

York (2023), in her study of ministries and technocratic loyalty under authoritarian regimes, shows that the appointment of technocrats to government positions may respond to a logic of competence, but also to a logic of loyalty and institutional efficiency. The technocrat thereby becomes an intermediary between the state apparatus and the political imperatives of those in power. Lekjaa fits this model particularly well: his trajectory combines financial administration and sports management, and his profile is therefore not that of an ideologue or a political orator, but that of a manager of complex systems.


It is precisely this profile that can become particularly attractive in a country simultaneously engaged in major infrastructure projects, economic transformation, administrative modernisation, and preparation for an exceptionally large-scale global event. For its part, PAM can hope to turn Lekjaa’s affiliation into a direct electoral advantage. The RMFF president’s visibility extends well beyond traditional partisan boundaries; his name is associated with the historic performances of Moroccan football, notably the semi-final of the 2022 World Cup, but also with the progressive institutionalisation of Moroccan football on the African and international stage.

His recruitment is therefore likely to produce a transfer of legitimacy, whereby part of the symbolic capital accumulated in the sporting field is transferred to the political field. This mechanism is not unique to Morocco, but it takes on particular intensity there given the role football has recently played in building a shared sense of national pride.

Football as a New Source of Political Legitimacy

Lekjaa’s career is inseparable from the transformation of Moroccan football into an instrument of national power. Since he took over the RMFF presidency in 2014, Moroccan football has undergone a profound institutional and infrastructural restructuring. The historic qualification of the Atlas Lions for the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup marked a major symbolic turning point. Football is no longer merely a sporting sector: it has become a vector of national pride, diplomacy, international projection, and soft power.


FIFA’s decision to officially designate Morocco, Spain, and Portugal as co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup considerably reinforced this dimension. After the joint bid of the three countries remained the sole candidacy for hosting the tournament (FIFA, 2023), FIFA’s Extraordinary Congress formally designated the hosts of the 2030 and 2034 editions of the competition in December 2024 (FIFA, 2024). Morocco’s selection is particularly significant: the country will be the first North African state to host part of a men’s World Cup. The tournament will also be exceptional for its transcontinental dimension, with Spain, Portugal, and Morocco as the principal host countries, while Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay will host the centenary commemorative matches (FIFA, 2026).

Seen from this angle, Lekjaa is not simply the president of the national federation: he has become one of the institutional faces of this national project. As early as September 2025, Moroccan, Spanish, and Portuguese officials were jointly discussing progress on the hosting file alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino (FIFA, 2025). In July 2026, the Kingdom’s official portal reported that the organisation of the 2030 World Cup constituted a “strategic project” within the framework of the royal vision, stressing the need for early preparation, permanent coordination among the institutions concerned, and close articulation between the Morocco 2030 Foundation and the RMFF (Maroc.ma, 2026b).


This official statement matters because it reveals how the World Cup is conceptualised by Moroccan officials: not as a mere one-off sporting event, but as a transversal national undertaking. Preparing such an event indeed requires competencies that closely resemble those needed to run a government: interministerial coordination, multi-year budget management, infrastructure development, security, diplomacy, transport, tourism, urban planning, international communication, relations with foreign partners, and the ability to meet extremely tight deadlines set by an international body. It is precisely at this intersection that Lekjaa’s figure becomes politically interesting: through his roles as Minister Delegate for the Budget and federation president, he already combines a large part of the skills that this transversal governance requires.

The “Manager” as a New Figure of Moroccan Power

Contemporary politics is increasingly shaped by a managerial logic. Voters demand not only doctrines but, increasingly, concrete results: infrastructure, growth, jobs, health, education, transport, administrative efficiency, and improved public services. This evolution favours profiles able to present themselves as “problem-solvers” rather than as bearers of an ideological vision. In the Moroccan case, it meets an older tradition of state technocratisation.

The Moroccan political system nonetheless remains deeply structured by the centrality of the monarchy. Specialised literature has long emphasised the weight of the royal institution in defining political equilibria and its capacity to structure the partisan space through what Daadaoui (2010) describes as “rituals of power”: electoral and institutional arrangements that organise partisan competition while preserving monarchical pre-eminence. El Bouchikhi (2018), in a complementary perspective devoted to the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, shows that Moroccan parties structurally operate within an asymmetrical relationship with the monarchy, in which their capacity for action remains subordinate to their position within a broader political order.


This reading connects with a broader analysis of Morocco’s institutional trajectory since 2011, according to which the formal expansion of governmental and party prerogatives has been accompanied by an ongoing recomposition of the real balance of power, without challenging the monarchy’s centrality in final arbitration (Chtatou, 2026, 27 May). This feature helps explain why a profile like Lekjaa’s can acquire particular importance. He does not merely represent technocracy in the classic administrative sense. He embodies a form of performative technocracy — that is, a technocracy able to concretely demonstrate its results to the public.

In football, results are immediately visible and quantifiable: they are measured by qualifications, rankings, infrastructure built, club performances, competitions organised, and the capacity to secure major international events.

This visibility is politically valuable. The structural problem of classic technocrats is that they often suffer from a deficit of popular legitimacy: their authority rests on expertise recognised by peers, but rarely on emotional public support. Lekjaa, by contrast, has an exceptionally large popular capital for a technocrat. Football provides him with a direct bridge between administrative expertise and collective emotion — a bridge that Le Monde itself notes largely explains his popularity, with the Moroccan public judging him “on the performances of the Moroccan national football team more than on the country’s financial situation,” which he nonetheless manages as Budget Minister (Aublanc, 2026).


It is thus possible to speak of a hybridisation between technocracy and sporting populism — not in the classic ideological sense of populism, but in the sense of an ability to communicate with very broad audiences through a highly emotional and unifying domain. This communicative dimension is not unique to Lekjaa’s case: it extends a more general trait of Moroccan government, whose authority rests largely on a subtle interplay of symbolic capital, appeals to collective emotion, and strategic ambiguity in political communication (Chtatou, 2026, 12 March). This hybridisation is undoubtedly one of the most original traits of Lekjaa’s political profile compared with the technocrats who preceded him in successive Moroccan governments.

Why the 2030 World Cup Changes the Nature of the Political Calculation

The 2030 World Cup represents an event of a different nature from the major competitions previously organised in Morocco, such as the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. It constitutes a long-term national project: FIFA plans a total of 101 matches across the entire competition, distributed among the various principal host countries, giving the event a considerable logistical, economic, and diplomatic scale (FIFA, 2026).

For Morocco, the stakes therefore extend well beyond football alone. The World Cup can accelerate rail, airport, and urban infrastructure; stimulate international tourism; strengthen economic attractiveness for investors; speed up the modernisation of stadiums and sporting facilities; develop cultural and creative industries; foster the creation of skilled jobs; strengthen connectivity between the Kingdom’s major cities; and increase Morocco’s diplomatic visibility on the world stage. It can also function as a structuring political deadline for the entire next governmental cycle.


A government taking office after the 23 September 2026 elections would thus have roughly four years to prepare for the 2030 deadline. The calendar is therefore almost perfectly aligned: elections in September 2026, formation of a new government in autumn 2026, intensive preparation of major projects between 2027 and 2030, and finally the actual organisation of the competition. It is this temporal coincidence that gives rise to the expression “World Cup 2030 government,” popularised by part of the Moroccan and international press following Lekjaa’s affiliation with PAM.

This expression does not necessarily mean that the future government would be composed exclusively around football. It rather designates a governmental team whose mandate would be strongly structured by the success of the major projects associated with the 2030 deadline. In this scenario, a man like Lekjaa has an obvious comparative advantage: he already knows the international interlocutors, the sporting institutions at continental and world level, the Iberian partners involved in co-hosting, and the precise organisational constraints tied to the event. As early as February 2025, the RMFF had already announced the creation of joint commissions to coordinate the efforts of Morocco, Spain, and Portugal in preparing the tournament — an institutional mechanism of which Lekjaa was one of the direct architects, alongside the Morocco 2030 Foundation and the professional leagues (Maroc.ma, 2026b). Football thus becomes, in this specific context, a genuine school of international governance for whoever leads it.

The Decisive Question: Can Sporting Success Be Converted into Governmental Success?

This is where the analysis must become more cautious. Running a sports federation and running a government are not equivalent functions. The RMFF is a sectoral organisation with a precise mission and a circumscribed scope of action. Government, by contrast, must manage contradictory interests, arbitrate between competing sectors, negotiate with organised social groups, respond to trade-union demands, manage cyclical economic crises, ensure the continuity of essential public services, and build lasting political compromises within a coalition.

An excellent manager of football does not therefore automatically become an excellent head of government. The reasoning that “whoever succeeded in football will succeed with the state” would constitute a category error that must be avoided. It would, however, also be wrong to minimise the transferable skills between the two worlds. Preparing a World Cup indeed requires certain capacities for inter-institutional coordination, diplomatic negotiation, multi-year budget management, and crisis communication that are directly relevant to governmental action.

The question, then, is not whether Lekjaa is capable of “playing the role of a Prime Minister” because he successfully leads national football, but rather whether his overall career demonstrates a proven capacity to manage complex organisations in highly constrained temporal and institutional environments. In this respect, his experience at the Ministry of Budget, where he has held the position of Minister Delegate since October 2021, is essential: it constitutes the administrative and financial counterpart to his action at the head of the RMFF.


The fact that he simultaneously holds a budgetary portfolio within government and leads the national federation creates a rather unusual hybrid profile in the Moroccan political landscape, combining public finance, administration, elite sport, and international diplomacy. This combination probably explains his recent political rise more than his sporting success alone, spectacular as it was in 2022. It is also this dual role — ministerial and federal — that critical coverage of his trajectory highlights, with some observers suggesting that his “parachuting” into a party “weakened by judicial scandals and in the midst of a leadership crisis” may have been facilitated by support extending beyond the party apparatus alone (Wikipedia, 2026, citing Aublanc, 2026).

PAM as a Vehicle of Transformation

Joining PAM must also be analysed from the party’s own point of view. PAM has historically been associated with a strategy of political modernisation and the pursuit of a new administrative and economic elite. Its trajectory fits into a Moroccan party landscape in which political formations periodically seek to renew their cadres and attract figures capable of transcending their traditional activist base.

Lekjaa’s entry corresponds perfectly to this logic of renewal. It allows PAM to present itself as the party of competence, management, and major national projects, at a moment when the party is positioning itself as the main challenger in the electoral race — Le360 (2026a) noting, in this regard, the “merciless duel” pitting it against the Istiqlal Party in several regions, notably those of the Sahara. The National Council of 25 July 2026 placed particular emphasis on openness to new competencies and on the party’s wish to place itself first in the elections (PAM, 2026a).

Lekjaa’s recruitment can therefore be read as a deliberate strategic repositioning. The party is not simply seeking additional votes: it is seeking a figure able to embody a credible promise of governmental performance. Tellingly, Lekjaa’s integration into PAM’s Political Bureau occurred in an almost automatic manner, under the party’s bylaws, which guarantee a seat on this senior executive body to any sitting minister who joins its ranks (Le360, 2026c) — Lekjaa, at this stage, being neither secretary-general of the party nor a member of its collegial presidency (Le360, 2026a).

In a political environment where trust in parties can be fragile, this strategy of co-opting outside profiles is electorally rational: a figure external to traditional partisan careers can appear more competent, more modern, and less bound by the internal disputes that regularly affect party structures. But this strategy carries a non-negligible structural risk: it can heighten the party’s dependence on a single individual. A solid political party should, in principle, be able to collectively produce public policies, cadres, programmes, and leaders. If its electoral appeal rests primarily on one providential individual, its organisational transformation necessarily remains incomplete and potentially reversible.

The “Lekjaa phenomenon” could therefore be either the starting point of a genuine political professionalisation of PAM, or, conversely, a further manifestation of the growing personalisation of Moroccan politics — a phenomenon the local press has not failed to comment on, noting, behind the unanimity displayed at the National Council, persistent “questions” about the real purpose of this affiliation (Le360, 2026a).

The “Establishment” Hypothesis: What Can Actually Be Demonstrated?

The claim that “the Moroccan establishment is preparing Lekjaa” for the premiership must be handled with great methodological caution. There are indirect indications that make the hypothesis politically intelligible. Several Moroccan and international media outlets have noted his rise, his entry into PAM, and his positioning weeks before the elections. Le Monde explicitly described Lekjaa as donning the “suit of a prime-ministerial contender” (Aublanc, 2026), while the French-language Wikipedia entry, citing that article, reports that some observers describe his affiliation as a “parachuting orchestrated by the royal palace” — a phrase that, even though it circulates in public debate, does not in itself constitute established factual proof.

No public source to date establishes an explicit royal decision or any advance “designation” of Lekjaa for the post of head of government. It is therefore necessary to rigorously distinguish three quite different levels of analysis. The first level is purely factual: Lekjaa joined PAM on 25 July 2026, a fact solidly documented by multiple concordant sources (Telquel, 2026; Médias24, 2026; Le360, 2026b, 2026c; Maroc Hebdo, 2026; Mountakhab, 2026). The second level is political: his affiliation considerably increases his objective capacity to enter the national electoral — and potentially governmental — arena. The third level is prospective: his profile could make him compatible with the office of head of government if the full set of required political and constitutional conditions were to be met.

Moving directly from the third level to the first — that is, presenting as settled an appointment that remains hypothetical — would be methodologically incorrect and would owe more to journalistic speculation than to rigorous political analysis. The existence of rumours about preparation by “the establishment” in no way constitutes proof of an actual decision, however intuitively plausible the hypothesis may be.

That said, within the Moroccan political system, it would also be naive to reduce political analysis to mere formal electoral mechanics. The specialised literature on Morocco consistently emphasises the structuring importance of the monarchy in organising elites, institutions, and party strategies (Daadaoui, 2010; El Bouchikhi, 2018; York, 2023). The right analytical question is therefore not “did the King personally choose Lekjaa?” — a question to which publicly available data simply do not allow an answer — but rather: does the Moroccan political system today produce structural incentives favourable to the emergence of profiles of Lekjaa’s type? The answer to this second, more modest but empirically better-grounded question, appears to be affirmative.

The Precedent of Political Technocratisation

Lekjaa’s evolution fits within a broader trend in contemporary Moroccan governance: the coexistence, within successive governments, of officials drawn from classic party politics with technocratic, administrative, economic, and professional profiles recruited for their sectoral expertise. Morocco has frequently mobilised technocratic competencies to lead sectors deemed strategic, a logic particularly visible in the economic, financial, industrial, and infrastructural fields over several decades.

Lekjaa’s case, however, differs markedly from this precedent because it adds a dimension of mass popularity largely unprecedented for a technocratic profile. He could thus represent the emergence of a new generation of technocrats that might be described as “popular technocrats” — profiles whose authority rests simultaneously on recognised technical expertise and on broad emotional support within public opinion.

This hybrid type of profile is particularly interesting in a context where public action must be able to produce both measurable concrete results and sufficiently broad social buy-in to legitimise the reforms undertaken. Football here plays the role of a common national language, transcending the regional, social, and generational divides that usually run through Moroccan society. It allows a figure of administrative background to acquire a popular visibility that classic technocrats generally lack, for want of comparable media exposure.

This dimension explains why the Atlas Lions’ success in 2022 had indirect but lasting political consequences. That historic sporting result created considerable emotional capital around the national team and its institutional leaders. Lekjaa became, on that occasion, one of the principal institutional representatives of this collective achievement, a position he has since consolidated through the successful organisation of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on Moroccan soil. He thus possesses something many classic technocrats lack: a national story that voters can themselves tell, and with which they can emotionally identify.

Would a “World Cup Government” Really Be a Good Thing?

The expression “World Cup government” is rhetorically appealing, but it deserves scrutiny on the merits. A government organised around the 2030 objective could benefit from exceptional strategic coherence. The various ministries could be mobilised around a shared, binding timetable covering infrastructure, tourism, transport, urban planning, security, culture, the environment, and the digital economy. The World Cup could thus become a powerful catalyst for administrative reform, comparable to the momentum generated by other recent major international events organised by the Kingdom, such as the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

But the opposite is equally possible, and this is where the main risk of this configuration lies. A government overly focused on the tournament’s media success could favour visible infrastructure at the expense of less spectacular but equally essential social needs. Building stadiums, roads, and tourist facilities produces images that are immediately marketable on the international stage, whereas structural reform of schools, health care, or public administration requires years of sustained effort and, by its very nature, produces far less immediate international visibility.

The real test of a potential “World Cup government” would therefore be its ability to use the 2030 deadline as a genuine lever for structural development, rather than as a mere temporary international showcase. International experience with sporting mega-events consistently shows that their lasting impact depends closely on the quality of governance put in place, the rigour of upstream planning, and, above all, the effective use of infrastructure built after the event itself has ended. The World Cup should therefore not be seen as an end in itself, but as a structuring deadline around which a broader, more durable national development strategy could be organised.


For Morocco, the fundamental medium-term question is the following: what will concretely remain of the World Cup in 2031, once the event is over and international media attention has faded? If the answer is limited to modern but under-used stadiums, the lasting political and economic effect would necessarily be limited. If, on the other hand, the answer includes better national mobility, durably improved rail infrastructure, better-connected cities, a lastingly strengthened tourism sector, a more efficient public administration, a competitive national sports industry, more skilled jobs created, and better economic integration within the Euro-Mediterranean space, then the 2030 deadline could indeed constitute a historic turning point for the Kingdom’s development trajectory.

The Limits of the “Lekjaa Model”

The first identifiable risk is that of excessive personalisation of power. If the entire national development strategy were to be identified with a single individual, that individual’s eventual failure could quickly become the failure of the entire collective project he is meant to embody. This fragility is structural to any heavily personalised model of governance, regardless of the individual’s own qualities.

The second risk is the confusion between sharp sectoral expertise and general political competence. Public policy cannot, by definition, be reduced to the mere management of technical projects, however complex. It also necessarily involves essential dimensions of social justice, resource redistribution, democratic representation of different social groups, ongoing political negotiation, and renewed democratic legitimacy.

The third risk is that of a deficit in party grassroots implantation. Lekjaa is entering electoral politics relatively late in his career. Within the particularly tight timeframe before the September 2026 ballot, he must therefore build genuine local electoral roots, a lasting activist culture within the party, and the capacity to produce a complete political programme going beyond the sole register of major infrastructure projects.

The fourth risk is directly tied to the level of public expectations he has raised. The higher the expectations placed on a man publicly presented as a “super-manager” capable of resolving the country’s structural problems, the more the social and media tolerance for error mechanically decreases, potentially exposing Lekjaa to rapid political wear in the event of difficulties.

The fifth risk concerns more specifically the governance of football itself and the question of separation of functions. The prolonged coexistence of senior political functions and senior sporting leadership functions necessarily raises legitimate questions of separation of responsibilities and institutional governance, even in the absence of any formally established conflict of interest to date. The lasting credibility of both sporting and political institutions indeed requires that respective responsibilities be clearly delineated and perceived as such by public opinion.

The 2026 Election as the Real Test

Fouzi Lekjaa’s first real test will not be the 2030 deadline, but rather that of 2026. The electoral calendar is now officially set: elections for the members of the House of Representatives will take place on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, with an official campaign scheduled from 10 to 22 September (Maroc.ma, 2026a).

The stakes of this ballot are twofold for Lekjaa and for the party welcoming him. First, Lekjaa will have to demonstrate that he possesses genuine electoral capacity of his own, distinct from his national media notoriety. His nationwide popularity in no way guarantees victory in a specific local constituency, where on-the-ground dynamics, established clientelist networks, and specific territorial issues play a decisive role. He will therefore have to convert his national notoriety into concrete electoral organisation, lasting territorial roots, and a credible, detailed political programme — it being noted that, at the time PAM published its list of candidates by constituency, his own candidacy in Berkane, his home town, had not yet been formally confirmed by the party (Médias24, 2026).

Second, PAM itself will have to demonstrate that it can turn Lekjaa’s arrival into genuinely collective momentum, rather than a mere communication operation centred on an isolated figure. If PAM finishes first in the 23 September ballot, the hypothesis of Lekjaa acceding to the premiership will become politically far more serious and far more probable. If, on the other hand, PAM finishes behind another party at the end of the vote, Article 47 of the Constitution will then become the principal legal constraint against any claim by Lekjaa to the premiership, whatever his personal popularity may otherwise be.

It is therefore premature, at this stage, to speak of governmental succession before the popular vote has even taken place. But it would be equally imprudent to regard Lekjaa’s entry into PAM as a secondary or purely anecdotal event. It constitutes, whatever the final outcome of the elections, a qualitatively significant change in Morocco’s political configuration as this major electoral deadline approaches.

Toward a New Generation of Moroccan Political Leadership?

The Lekjaa phenomenon could ultimately extend beyond his own person and his own individual trajectory. More broadly, it could signal the emergence of a new type of Moroccan political elite: leaders drawn mainly from public administration, private business, finance, economic diplomacy, elite sport, or major national projects, rather than from traditional party careers built over several decades of activism.

This evolution would correspond to a broader transformation of contemporary politics, observable in many national contexts beyond the Moroccan case alone. Citizens increasingly evaluate governments on their concrete ability to deliver tangible results rather than solely on the coherence of their ideological discourse. Politics is thus becoming, at least in part, a matter of effectively managing contemporary administrative and economic complexity.

From this perspective, Morocco may, in the years ahead, seek figures capable of simultaneously connecting the strategic vision carried by the monarchical institution, on-the-ground public administration, domestic and foreign private investment, major infrastructure projects, and the Kingdom’s international communication. Lekjaa possesses precisely several of these characteristics combined within a single individual career.


His professional background allows him to speak, at once, the language of public financial administration, that of elite sport, that of international institutions such as FIFA and the Confederation of African Football, and that of major national infrastructure projects. It is this rare versatility, even more than his popularity alone, that probably constitutes his main distinctive political capital in the current Moroccan context.

The Paradox: The More Apolitical Lekjaa Appears, the More Political He Becomes

There is, finally, a particularly interesting paradox worth highlighting to conclude this analysis. Lekjaa’s political strength stems partly from the fact that, until very recently, he was not perceived as a traditional politician in the classic sense of the term. In the eyes of public opinion, he could appear essentially as a competent professional, an effective manager, a man of concrete results rather than of partisan discourse.

His formal entry into PAM necessarily changes this collective perception. From now on, each of his public decisions can be read through an explicitly political lens, which was not systematically the case before, when he mainly expressed himself as a sports leader or a technical budget official.

This transformation will be particularly decisive during the electoral campaign, which formally opens on 10 September 2026. His public discourse will necessarily have to evolve, moving from the register of football to that of general public power, from sporting performance to concrete social policy, from sports infrastructure to everyday public services. He will have to demonstrate, before voters and observers alike, that he possesses a global vision of Morocco that extends well beyond the field of football and technical budget management alone.

If he succeeds in this, his move into electoral politics could become a genuine textbook case of the successful conversion of technocratic capital into lasting electoral capital, potentially inspiring other similar profiles in future electoral cycles. If, on the other hand, he fails to make this shift in register, his affiliation with PAM could, in retrospect, be interpreted as a mere opportunistic attempt to convert sporting popularity into political power, without any genuine underlying ideology or societal project.

Conclusion: The “World Cup Government” as Hypothesis, Not Yet as Reality

Fouzi Lekjaa’s entry into PAM undeniably marks a significant new stage in his personal and professional trajectory. It comes just weeks before the 23 September 2026 legislative elections, in a context where PAM openly claims the ambition of becoming the Kingdom’s leading parliamentary force at the end of the ballot (PAM, 2026a).

His profile appears exceptionally well suited to the particular historical moment Morocco is currently going through. It brings together three distinct forms of political capital: the technocratic capital of the experienced senior civil servant, the managerial capital of the internationally recognised sports leader, and the popular capital of the institutional official closely associated with the recent renaissance of Moroccan national football. To these three dimensions is now added, since 25 July 2026, a fourth: the properly political capital conferred by his formal party affiliation.

It is this unusual combination of four forms of capital that lends credibility, in the eyes of a significant part of public opinion and observers, to the hypothesis of a future accession by Lekjaa to the premiership. But one must firmly resist the temptation to turn a plausible political hypothesis into an already established fact. No publicly available evidence to date allows one to affirm with certainty that Lekjaa was formally designated or “prepared” in advance by the Moroccan establishment to become head of government. What is, however, empirically observable is a remarkable convergence between his individual professional career, the objective governance needs of contemporary Morocco, and the institutional calendar of the 2030 World Cup.

The timing is almost too perfect not to legitimately fuel political and media speculation: elections in September 2026, the opening of a new governmental cycle from autumn 2026, the programmed acceleration of major national projects through to 2030, and finally the actual organisation of the World Cup. In this specific context, the expression “World Cup 2030 government” carries genuine analytical value for the researcher, beyond its immediate journalistic dimension. It designates less a government personally led by Lekjaa than a more general model of governance, centred on rigorous execution, inter-institutional coordination, major structuring projects, and the Kingdom’s increased international visibility.

Should Lekjaa indeed become Head of Government at the end of the electoral and constitutional process, his main challenge would then be to demonstrate that the qualities that made him an effective manager of Moroccan football can genuinely be transposed to the structural complexity of running the state. He would have to transform the logic of immediate sporting results into a logic of lasting public results: no longer merely winning matches, organising international competitions, and building sports infrastructure, but concretely improving schools, hospitals, employment, social justice, national economic competitiveness, and the overall quality of public services provided to Moroccan citizens.

It is precisely there, in this demanding transposition from one register to another, that the future of the “Lekjaa model” will truly be decided. The 2030 World Cup could provide him with a formidable political and symbolic platform. But it could just as easily become his greatest personal and political test, for organising a World Cup is one thing; governing a country while it simultaneously organises a World Cup is quite another.

The real political question of the coming months is therefore perhaps not, ultimately: “Will Fouzi Lekjaa become Morocco’s next Prime Minister?” It is deeper, and concerns the entire national political system: is Morocco moving from a generation of leaders primarily defined by their historical political affiliation to a generation in which managerial competence, concrete execution capacity, and the successful management of major projects themselves become autonomous and sufficient sources of political legitimacy? If this is indeed the case, Lekjaa could be not only a credible potential candidate for the premiership, but also the precursor symbol of a deeper transformation of the Moroccan ruling elite as a whole. The 2030 World Cup would then be not simply another sporting competition: it could become the institutional backdrop for a new phase of contemporary Moroccan governance.


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About Dr. Mohamed Chtatou
Dr. Mohamed Chtatou is a Professor of education science at the university in Rabat. He is currently a political analyst with Moroccan, Gulf, French, Italian and British media on politics and culture in the Middle East, Islam and Islamism as well as terrorism. He is, also, a specialist on political Islam in the MENA region with interest in the roots of terrorism and religious extremism.
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