Dakar, May 16 (APS) – The leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, defined patriotism as the fact of “getting involved in everything (…) with constancy in the defense of principles” .
”Patriotism is love for one’s own, but it also means getting involved in everything with constancy in the defense of principles, unlike what Europe does which uses double standards”, he declared on Thursday in Dakar.
Mr. Mélenchon co-hosted a conference with the president of the African Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and fraternity (PASTEF-Les patriotes), Ousmane Sonko, in a packed amphitheater at Cheikh-Anta-Diop University in Dakar on the theme: “Exchanges on the future of Africa-Europe relations”.
Referring to the pre-electoral political-judicial tensions that occurred in Senegal between 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the leader of the ”Insoumis”, described them as a ”citizen revolution” with the objective of ”fighting against Western imperialism.
”Contrary to the reactionaries who described it as riots, the citizens’ revolution which took place in Senegal and which brought the Pastef Project to power, was a fight against imperialist networks, some of which came from my country”, France , he said.
Citing French companies operating in Senegal as part of ”imperialist networks”, the leader of LFI indulged in a monologue lasting almost an hour in a short presentation on independence and sovereignty, recurring terms in his speech and that of Ousmane Sonko.
”Independence is not a geopolitical status, he said, but it is breaking dependencies. If sovereignty and independence go together, the freedom to conduct one’s own policy is also linked to them.
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