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Senegal’s new government hopes to gain fresh momentum in the upcoming parliamentary election

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Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye during a visit to Paris, 25 July 2024.
Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye during a visit to Paris, 25 July 2024. Photo: picture alliance / Hans Lucas | Xose Bouzas

On 17 November, Senegal will hold parliamentary elections that will determine the fate of the country’s recently elected government. At the end of March, Diomaye Faye was elected the country’s new president. Faye, the candidate of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), achieved a sensational result, winning almost 55 percent of the valid votes in the first round of the election.

Claus-Dieter König directs the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s West Africa Office in Dakar.

The upcoming election will determine whether this new government will have the necessary parliamentary support to follow through on the policy manifesto which won them the vote. The central tenets of this programme include the comprehensive democratization of society and a plan to reduce neo-colonial dependencies — in other words, to achieve greater economic and political sovereignty.

Diomaye Faye owes his March victory to three main factors. Firstly, the initial PASTEF candidate, the charismatic opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, was unable to stand for election due to a controversial criminal conviction. Secondly, then-President Macky Sall was not eligible to run after 12 years in office, and his chosen successor, Amadou Ba, failed to shine in the election campaign. Thirdly, Faye won over the political centre, which had been hoping for a shift in power. 

The Rebirth of Democracy

Developments in recent years have emphatically underscored the fact that many people in Francophone West Africa are fed up with neocolonial influence. One need only look at the success of the “anti-imperialist” military governments in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which have taken advantage of anti-French sentiment to galvanize popular support. 

It is little wonder that people living in West Africa are dissatisfied with the conditions as they stand. The countries where they live provide cheap raw materials to the global economy while receiving little in return. At the same time, they serve as a market for foreign products. Fiscal deficits are leading to the disintegration of social infrastructure, a lack of investment, and the destruction of any prospects for the future. 

The country’s role as a supplier of raw materials to international buyers leaves agriculture particularly exposed to the threat from subsidized imports.

The new Senegalese government is trying to break this vicious cycle of exploitation and underdevelopment. Institutional reform is at the top of its priorities, the aim being to facilitate democracy and fortify the independence of the judiciary. There are also plans to limit the power of the president by introducing the office of vice president. Another goal is to put an end to cases where individuals hold several elective offices —in Senegal, for example, ministers have often also served as mayors of the country’s major cities. 

The rejection of neocolonial dependencies and the renewed quest for self-determination are referred to as “neo-sovereignty”. For the new ruling party PASTEF, this term refers primarily to a reorientation of economic policy. Its government is the first in West Africa to pursue the fight against neo-colonialism not only through populism, as neighbouring military regimes have done, but also by presenting a carefully crafted policy manifesto to the public, which is what earned it a democratic victory at the polls. 

This is remarkable, because there is a long tradition of undermining democracy in West Africa. The political class that fought for democracy in the 1990s seized power and institutions, excluding young people from getting involved or having their say. Democracy remained unpopular for a long time, since elections merely served to keep the ruling class in power, and greater self-determination through democratic means seemed out of reach. The new Senegalese government marks a fresh start.

New Agricultural and Fisheries Policies

The country’s role as a supplier of raw materials to international buyers leaves agriculture particularly exposed to the threat from subsidized imports. For this reason, the Senegalese government is attempting to reduce its dependence on food imports.

This is no easy task, given that extreme weather conditions caused by climate change have already severely impacted the country, causing coastal erosion and salinization of soils, as well as delayed, insufficient, or excessive rainfall. This is leading to an increasing scarcity of fertile land and causing crop failures, further heightening the country’s dependence on food imports. The new government has already taken some initial steps to alleviate this problem, such as reducing the price of seeds and fertilizer and ensuring that they are more fairly distributed amongst small farmers. 

In addition to agricultural reforms, reducing this dependency also requires creating better conditions for local fishermen. That is why the PASTEF government wants to renegotiate international fisheries agreements. As it stands, the abundant fishing areas off the coast of Senegal are being depleted by huge trawlers from Europe and China. Industrial overfishing has robbed many locals of their livelihoods.

In its first few months in office, the new government has implemented several popular policies, such as reducing the cost of essential food items and the introduction of public-sector audits.

Although there are only around 68,000 non-industrial fishermen in the region, several hundred thousand more people — mostly women — are employed in the processing, transport, and production of wicker baskets and other storage containers. On top of this, there are social and cultural aspects to consider: the fishing communities have their own pension system, and the locals identify strongly with this centuries-old tradition. All this is collapsing under the influx of trawlers. As a result, many fishermen who can no longer provide for their families make the perilous journey to Europe. Renegotiating fishing licenses may help protect local fishing communities and those employed in the sector.

The Risks of Populism

The majority of the representatives currently serving in the National Assembly are closely aligned with the previous government. With no parliamentary majority of its own, however, many of PASTEF’s proposals cannot be implemented. It was therefore clear from the outset that Diomaye Faye would dissolve parliament and try to call new elections in order to win a majority of his own. 

In its first few months in office, the new government has implemented several popular policies, such as reducing the cost of essential food items and the introduction of public-sector audits. While these policies are popular, they do not yet point to a coherent economic and social policy framework. Furthermore, although PASTEF’s discourse on neo-sovereignty raised hopes for a policy that would strengthen domestic industry and reduce dependence on imports, this will not be easy to achieve in practice. 

Yet in the lead-up to the upcoming National Assembly elections, the populist policies championed by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko carry serious risks. Sonko is adamant about defending a value system he claims to be intrinsically Senegalese, and opposed to “Western values”. By making his opposition to the controversial ban on veils at one of Dakar’s best Catholic schools a central theme of his discourse, and by railing against the legal equality of lesbian, gay, and other queer people, he is sure to win approval from the students at the University of Dakar. At the same time, however, this populist “culture war” could scare off much-needed swing voters.

If it succeeds, the Senegalese model could — despite all the contradictions outlined — become a role model for other countries in the region.

A further risk is that many people are beginning to perceive the repeated emphasis on how the previous government left the country deeply in debt to be little more than an excuse. While it is indeed true that Macky Sall used to govern on credit and that the “old” parliamentary majority has done everything it can since March to obstruct the efficient workings of government, the polemic against Sall does not obscure the fact that the new government has yet to initiate its much-heralded economic turnaround.

The third risk with regard to the upcoming election (and beyond) is that the last few months have cast doubt on Sonko’s respect for democratic institutions. One of the main reasons Diomaye Faye was elected president in March is because many voters were concerned about the rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of freedom of expression, which had been particularly evident in Macky Sall’s second term in office. This makes them all the more incensed by the fact that the new government recently had several journalists arrested. The Senegalese population, keen to defend their relatively robust democracy and freedom of speech, is overwhelmingly opposed to developments such as those seen in Tunisia or Tanzania, where initially popular presidents who built their success on an anti-corruption agenda rule in an increasingly authoritarian and repressive manner.

“Senegal as a Model”?

The ruling party hopes to gain an absolute majority in the National Assembly in the upcoming election. There is a reasonable chance that this might come to pass: after all, it would be a first for Senegal if the president did not have his own governing majority after the parliamentary election. 

In order to prevent a single-party PASTEF government from forming, the opposition is forging new alliances. Macky Sall has joined forces with his old nemesis Karim Wade to form the Takku Wallu Senegal alliance. Sonko’s former partners — led by the popular mayor of Dakar, Barthélémy Dias — broke with Sonko before the presidential election and have now joined forces as Samm Sa Senegal. The opposition parties want to force the president into a French-style cohabitation and thus thwart his government. However, this also creates the risk of mutual deadlock, which could lead to a long-term political crisis.

If, on the other hand, PASTEF wins an absolute majority, it would give the government the necessary leeway to implement its programme of “endogenous and sovereign development”. It could then actually reduce the country’s neocolonial dependencies and expand democracy. If it succeeds, the Senegalese model could — despite all the contradictions outlined — become a role model for other countries in the region.

This article first appeared in nd.aktuell in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Translated by Hunter Bolin and Rowan Coupland for Gegensatz Translation Collective.