The crunch came with a breakdown in relations between the confrontational Sonko and the outgoing legislative majority loyal to former head of state Macky Sall and his Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) alliance (AC Vol 65 No 11 Faye's diplomatic rounds)...
Former president Macky Sall – now operating from Marrakech – had clearly been expecting the dissolution and on 3 September he made a farewell address to his parliamentary supporters...
DISPATCHES
Faye appears to have outmanoeuvred BBY led by former president Macky Sall who had said they were working on draft legislation aimed at preventing the president from being able to dissolve parliament...
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In contrast his opponents in the Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition led by Macky Sall who was president until earlier this year are only just short of an overall majority on 82 with three years of the current National Assembly still to run...
Criticism of Macky Sall-era cronyism corruption and politicisation was for years a staple of Pastef rhetoric...
DISPATCHES
Ministers say that they want to reclaim US$60 million in tax debts which had been written off by Faye's predecessor Macky Sall's government...
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Kenyan activists are comparing their movement to the protests in Senegal that saw former President Macky Sall's party defeated in elections by Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko both in their forties...
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko hosting the veteran French leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Dakar launched a diatribe against France and the EU complaining that they failed to speak out against former President Macky Sall's crackdown on dissent (AC Vol 65 No 4 Fury as Sall's vote delay unleashes mayhem)...
The Commission tabled visa restrictions on Senegal in November 2022 after little progress in talks on returns with former President Macky Sall's government...
Vol 65 No 9 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
Just days before the handover of power in Dakar Senegal's outgoing President Macky Sall introduced the two leaders to each other...
President Macky Sall has been a close ally to Paris...
In 2012 it was the run-off ballot that delivered victory for Macky Sall even though he was then the popular hero challenging an ageing President Abdoulaye Wade who had persuaded the Constitutional Council to let him seek a third term...
Unpopular Equally important was the scale of Senegalese citizens' fury at the way Macky Sall was eroding the country's democratic values and civic freedoms and presiding over the politicisation of the judiciary...
The deaths of at least 60 protestors in street clashes with the security forces and the jailing of hundreds of mostly young people over street protests or even Facebook posts deepened disenchantment with Macky Sall even among many of the urban middle class who were benefiting most from economic growth (AC Vol 65 No 4 Fury as Sall's vote delay unleashes mayhem)...
Corruption was another grievance with deep resentment at the president's appointment of his brother Aliou – facing allegations over contentious oil dealings – to head a state investment fund (AC Vol 63 No 11 Macky Sall faces the third-term curse)...
But that did not defuse anger towards Macky Sall...
He might hope to tempt some members of Macky Sall's now demoralised BBY alliance...
Ever since Sonko's strong third place in the 2019 presidential election the anti-corruption campaigner had been regarded as the most potent threat to Macky Sall's hopes of winning a third term...
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The mass support that had comfortably carried Macky Sall to a second term five years ago was hollowed out by anger at worsening corruption and the erosion of democratic rights since 2019...