Promising political revolution fails: Senegalese prime minister dismissed by his former right-hand man

And so a political revolution came to an end: in a short statement on television. Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s prime minister and perhaps the country’s most popular politician – at least until recently – has been dismissed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, his former right-hand man and party colleague. Two years after the duo seized power in an unprecedented manner, Senegal is threatened new political crisis.

Actually, only the timing, at half past nine on Friday evening and the day before millions of Senegalese celebrate the Feast of the Sacrifice, was a surprise. For months they had been watching a power struggle between their president and his prime minister increasingly openly derail. There was almost daily speculation in newspapers and on radio and TV about an impending disaster rupturea break. Not if it would take place, but when.

With Sonko’s resignation, his government has also been dissolved. A new prime minister has not yet been appointed. Sonko will almost certainly return to parliament.

End of a political experiment

For Senegalese, it is a disappointing end to a political experiment with which Faye and Sonko managed to restore the confidence of many in Senegal’s democracy in 2024. And not only in Senegal: in West Africa, dominated by coups and clinging to old leaders, Faye and Sonko were the example that things could be done differently.

But the two became divided over a way out of a deep financial crisis that soon brought their promised political transformation largely to a halt. According to experts, ego and Fayes’ personal political ambitions were added.

The latter was not the agreement. Faye was actually the ‘Plan-B’ president. The silent strategist of Pastef – Les Patriotes, the party he founded years ago together with Sonko. Sonko was, and still is, their undisputed leader; a charismatic politician who became extremely popular among Senegal’s youth with populist promises around sovereignty and Pan-Africanism. He was the ideal presidential candidate for 2024.

That turned out differently. After a turbulent election period in which then-president Macky Sall tried to control the struggle, including by arresting members of Pastef – including Sonko and Faye – a legal conviction made Sonko ineligible. He then pushed his,petit frère” Faye came forward. Under the motto ‘Diomaye is Sonko’, Senegalese voted en masse for the previously unknown Faye.

Substitution candidate

Faye called himself a “replacement candidate”. It was not about the people, he emphasized at his installation, but about their political project. With Sonko as his prime minister, the duo wanted to radiate that. But little has come of their promises, centered on economic independence and major reforms of Senegal’s institutions and judiciary, in the past two years.

This is partly due to the discovery of a ‘hidden’ debt worth billions: under Sall, Senegal’s budget deficit and national debt appeared to be rosier for years than they actually were. The International Monetary Fund concluded last year that real debt had risen to 132 percent of GDP.

Since then, virtually no one on the international capital market has wanted to lend Faye’s government money and an IMF support program of 1.55 billion euros has been frozen. Discussions about a restart have been unsuccessful for months.

A disagreement over how to get out of this crisis appears to have torn Sonko and Faye, two former tax inspectors, apart. For example, Sonko strongly opposes a restructuring of Senegal’s debts, which the IMF is pushing for, because this would involve interference by the IMF in Senegal’s financial policy.

The more pragmatic Faye seems to think differently. Exactly when economists recently met in the capital Dakar under the patronage of Sonko to discuss a way out of Senegal’s crisis without the IMF, Faye met with the chief executive of the IMF during a summit in Nairobi. The message afterwards: the president takes personal control of the negotiations.

There was more about which the two clashed. While Sonko wanted to clean up the board by appointing Pastef candidates everywhere and prosecuting members of Sall’s regime (including for corruption), Faye showed himself to be more forgivable.

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Faye does not conceal her own ambitions

The first cracks became visible last summer, after which the confrontations built up. Especially since Faye no longer conceals his own political ambitions. At the beginning of this year he gave fire to the Coalition Diomayean occasional coalition from 2024 that is now increasingly taking the form of an alternative to Pastef – although Faye says he still belongs to that party.

In a recent interview Speaking to local journalists, Faye increased the tension this month by saying that Sonko “is only the prime minister because he has my trust.” If that trust is broken, he said, a new prime minister will be appointed.

Now a political impasse threatens: despite a strong presidential system, Faye needs parliament for important reforms. With 130 of the 165 seats for Pastef, this could be difficult: most are outspokenly loyal to Sonko. The president cannot call new parliamentary elections until the end of this year at the earliest and that is also a gamble: he won at the time thanks to Sonko’s popularity.

Within Pastef there are accusations of betrayal and Sonko is still loved outside the party. After the news of his dismissal, he was discharged on Friday evening a crowd welcomed home. The question is whether many more Senegalese will blame Faye for their failed project. It’s sad, says a member from the early days of their coalition. “This is not what I and so many others fought for.”

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