The main Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, candidate for the 2024 presidential election, “portrayed as anti-French“, claims to have “nothing against“France but calls it a”win-win partnership“with Africa, in an interview with international French media France 24 et RFI.
There are centuries-old traditions between Senegal and France.Ousmane Sonko, Senegalese presidential candidate
“We were portrayed as notorious anti-French people. We have nothing against France, says Ousmane Sonko. We have a speech that can get in the way because it’s a speech that calls for a break in relationships“between Paris and African countries.
“There are centuries-old traditions between Senegal and France“but they”are not totally rosy for Senegal. We want to continue partnerships but in a win-win sense” with “a revision of a certain number of axes, especially at the economic level“and in the fields of natural resources and immigration, specified the president of the party of the Patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef), also mayor of Zinguichor (south).
Referring to Russia, Ousmane Sonko indicates that “what is expected (of this country) is not a war partnership” most “broader partnerships that encompass all development issues“. Or, “what we see in some African countries does not seem to go in this direction. We are in the replacement. Is what you replace with better than what you replace? I’m not totally sure“, he adds.
Russian influence on French-speaking Africa
In several French-speaking African countries, Moscow is leading an active campaign of influence, particularly on social networks and enjoys growing popular support when France, a former colonial power, is increasingly vilified there. Some countries accuse the junta in power in Mali of having recourse to the private para-military company Wagner, reputed to be close to the Kremlin, which Bamako denies.
The question of a possible rapprochement with Russia has also arisen in Burkina since the coup d’etat of September 30, the second in eight months, which brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power, while the country is struggling to cope with recurrent deadly jihadist attacks since 2015.
Ousmane Sonko, 48, was charged with rape and death threats and placed under judicial supervision in March 2021, after being targeted in February 2021 by a complaint from an employee of a beauty salon where he was going to have a massage for back pain. He denounces aconspiracy“to torpedo his candidacy, which the power denies. President Macky Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, remains silent on his intentions for the presidential election of 2024.