Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko attacked harshly on Thursday in front of hundreds of students galvanized by the attitude of Paris during the repression against his camp under former President Macky Sall, accusing the Macron presidency of having incited persecution”. Ousmane Sonko, champion of sovereignism and social pan-Africanism, delivered in a hemicycle at the University of Dakar in Senegal and to repeated acclamations his longest and most political speech since his appointment in April after the thunderous victory of his people in the presidential election.
He clarified that he was speaking as a party leader and not a government leader, during a conference on relations between Africa and Europe with the virulent French radical left opponent Jean-Luc Mélenchon. critic of the French president.
Presence of Jean-Luc Mélenchon
In front of a conquered and heated audience, he engaged in a strong criticism of the past and recent action of the West, Europe and France, including during the three years of confrontation with the former president. Macky Sall. After the “leonine relations to the detriment of Africans”, he affirmed the desire for cooperation “based on mutual respect and recognition of the legitimate aspirations of each nation for sovereignty”.
In the presence of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose constant support he praised, he returned to the standoff that he and his party brought to power from 2021 to 2024 and which caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests. . “You have never heard the French government denounce what happened,” Ousmane Sonko said. He accused Emmanuel Macron of having welcomed and “congratulated” his Senegalese counterpart “at the worst (time)” of the repression. “It is an incitement to repression, an incitement to the persecution and execution of Senegalese who had (committed no other) crime than having a political project,” he declared. Many European governments remained in an “approving silence”, he said.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon was present alongside the Senegalese Prime Minister.
Ousmane Sonko was himself imprisoned for several months and prevented from competing in the election in which he was considered one of the favorites. He was replaced by his second Bassirou Diomaye Faye who won hands down in the first round against the candidate nominated by Macky Sall.
Against the “current governing elite” of France
Ousmane Sonko denounced the “neocolonization” at work, according to him, in relations between the West and Africa. “We almost believed it when President Macron declined the new African doctrine of the Elysée, this new doctrine which was to constitute the refusal of any political support to authoritarian and corrupt regimes. This is not what happened in Senegal,” he said.
Ousmane Sonko had distinguished himself as an opponent through his outings against the political and economic influence that the former colonial power continued to exercise, according to him. He reaffirmed Thursday that his remarks were not aimed at the “French people with whom we have no problem”, but at “the current governing elite”. He assured that his positions did not change with the accession to power. But this accession “will lead us to collaborate with all governments, including the French state and the government of Mr Emmanuel Macron”.
Cooperation must take into account Senegal’s sovereignty in the monetary field, but also in security. “We must question why the French army still benefits from several military bases in our countries and the impact of this presence on our national sovereignty and our strategic autonomy,” he declared.
Senegal’s desire to have its own power
France has military installations in Dakar. “I reiterate here Senegal’s desire to have its own control, which is incompatible with the lasting presence of foreign military bases in Senegal,” he continued. “This does not call into question the defense agreements,” he clarified.
He also castigated the double standards of the West and its African allies vis-à-vis the Sahel states that have been the scene of putsch since 2020 (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger). “Those who today condemn regimes considered military or dictatorial are nevertheless inclined to go to other countries which are not democratic when their interest is there to negotiate oil and the market,” he said. -he says. He deemed the sanctions taken against the juntas “inadmissible”. “We will not let go of our brothers in the Sahel,” he added.