How can we not be swept away by what looks like a protesting groundswell? This is the subject of the report by deputies Bruno Fuchs (MoDem) and Michèle Tabarot (Les Républicains, LR) on the state of Franco-African relations.
While Paris has had to deal with the forced departure of its soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso and finally Niger, the speech hostile to its African policy benefits from an ever wider echo in opinions and new competitors come to challenge positions that French decision-makers thought were established, the two elected officials advocate more clarity and consistency in actions and speeches vis-à-vis the continent.
You plead for a “fair distance” in relations between France and African countries. What do you mean ?
Bruno Fuchs We must move away from a missionary and moralizing vision that alienates Africans from us. This approach, anchored in French culture, has never worked. We defend a model of society based on democracy, respect for the rule of law and attachment to public freedoms, but we are not moralistic towards Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China . Why would we be with the DRC, Equatorial Guinea or Ivory Coast? We must be consistent in our approach to the world and stand our ground.
When we go against our values as we did in Chad [où après la mort d’Idriss Déby, Emmanuel Macron a soutenu la solution d’une transition dirigée par le fis du défunt], we must be transparent and explain that the principle of security in the region takes precedence over the rest. The question also arises with Egypt: would we prefer to have in power a Marshal Sissi, who is not a recognized democrat, or the Muslim Brotherhood?
We must also resolve this paradox which consists of defending a multipolar vision of the world while favoring, in Africa, a unilateral mode of action.
Isn’t France stuck in a polarization of ideas between a nostalgia for colonial power and a frontal questioning of African policy since decolonization?
France lives in a contradiction linked to the virtuous, but outdated, doctrine developed under François Mitterrand. While, under General de Gaulle, Paris assured decolonized African countries of protection in exchange for loyalty during votes at the UN, since Mitterrand, we claim to support democratic regimes by guaranteeing the security of States. The trouble comes from there, because we have instituted a policy of variable geometry. We are uncompromising towards President Obiang in power in Equatorial Guinea since 1979, but we have developed close relations with neighboring Gabon which was on a similar trajectory. In Lebanon, we call for the fight against corrupt politicians, but we are knighting Déby’s son in Chad. We must regenerate the Mitterrand doctrine because, contrary to what we naively believed in the 1990s, economic development was not enough to impose democracy everywhere.
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