Between the government, which, five months after its installation, avoids any declaration of general policy before the Assembly for fear of being put in the minority, and deputies who remained in the majority despite the defeat of their candidate Amadou Ba in the presidential election in March, the crisis was inevitable in Senegal. The day after the filing of the motion of censure by the elected representatives of the Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition, the president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, surprised his opponents and launched the counterattack on Wednesday, September 4.
By resorting to Article 84 of the Constitution which gives “the priority” to the executive to set the agenda in the hemicycle, the head of state used the“lethal weapon”as some newspapers write, to protect his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his government. He is thus offering a reprieve to his troops, criticized for their inaction. The president has remained consistent with his lineassures one of his close friends, Elimane Pouye. The Prime Minister’s disavowal would have been the President’s disavowal. The motion of censure would have called into question his decision to appoint Mr Sonko as Prime Minister. “This act of defiance would also have weakened his support as a probable dissolution of the National Assembly looms from mid-September, followed by early legislative elections by the end of the year.
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« Between the use of Article 84 and the motion of censure, we are witnessing a political escalationjudges Alassane Ndao, political scientist at Gaston-Berger University in Saint-Louis. We are in a transition period where the new authorities must secure a majority following the early election. They are slowing down the debates, controlling the deadlines and demonizing Macky Sall’s parliamentary majority. [l’ancien président, au pouvoir de 2012 à 2024]. »
Because if Bassirou Diomaye Faye imposed his constitutional primacy, the maneuver did nothing to calm the political climate, electrified in recent weeks by his Prime Minister’s statements against the media and the justice system. A few hours before the publication of the presidential statement invoking Article 84 of the Constitution, Ousmane Sonko had beaten the Head of State – who was his right-hand man for a long time before he came to power – to the punch by assuring that there would be “ no motion of censure ».
Threats against figures of the old regime
The Prime Minister also raised fears of a coming witch hunt against figures from the old regime. Three or four of them were able to escape abroad.he said in Wolof. If we have to look for them, we will bring them back.” These barely veiled threats did not fail to provoke a reaction from the supporters of the former president, who has been absent from the political scene since leaving Senegal at the beginning of April.
« Ousmane Sonko is turning our institutions into trampsdenounces Moussa Diakhate, president of the law commission and pillar of the parliamentary majority. With his positions, he threatens to shatter our institutions. Why such contempt? “A finding shared outside the ranks of BBY, notably by Thierno Alassane Sall, candidate in the last presidential election. ” Never has a power, in just five months, sought so much confrontation with counter-powers. ” he lashed out on the social network X.
For their part, the BBY deputies took the opportunity to attack the government on its inability to reveal its government priorities to the national representation, at the risk of worrying Senegal’s foreign partners. The general policy statement [DPG] is needed to work with donors “, recalls the chairman of the Law Commission. The vagueness maintained by the executive on its budgetary priorities thus led to the suspension of a disbursement of 250 million dollars by the International Monetary Fund. Coincidence or not, the DPG has reappeared on the agenda of the third extraordinary session of the assembly, opened on Thursday, September 5, and could be debated on September 11, according to the conference of presidents of the National Assembly. But a new maneuver by the government is not excluded to avoid the boos expected in the chamber during this session.
« The aim of this sequence is the dissolution of the assembly to put an end to the blockage of government action.”insists political scientist Alassane Ndao. With the campaign for the legislative elections taking shape, political quarrels are likely to become even more pronounced.
