Senegal’s President Faye Cautions Prime Minister As Ruling Party’s Unity Sinks

Simmering tensions within Senegal’s ruling alliance broke into the open on Saturday as President Bassirou Diomaye Faye delivered a pointed message to Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, asserting that their Pastef party transcends any single individual.

Speaking during a televised interview, Faye cautioned against what he described as “excessive personalisation,” warning that the party “risks being destroyed if its participants don’t change course.”

Sonko commands a fervent base among Senegal’s disenchanted youth, a demographic drawn to his pan-African, anti-French messaging in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.

However, he was legally barred from contesting and threw his weight behind Faye, who subsequently named him prime minister upon assuming office.

Together, their Pastef party secured an outright first-round victory on pledges of sweeping political transformation, promising to root out what they characterised as entrenched corruption and poor governance.

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That triumph followed a period of volatile street protests in which demonstrators, some fatally had rallied against former president Macky Sall amid fears he would seek an unconstitutional third term.

“The sacrifices, which resulted in deaths, injuries and imprisonments, were not made for the sake of any one man but for the very essence of the project” to change the system in Senegal, Faye said.

“We have always sought to distinguish (the people and) the project, which should be depersonalised from the leader who embodies it,” he said.

Since then, fault lines have developed between the two leaders, with public disagreements over coalition governance and debt restructuring negotiations, disputes that unsettled Senegal’s standing in international bond markets.

Following legislative amendments to electoral eligibility criteria last month, Sonko is widely anticipated to mount a presidential bid ahead of the 2029 election.

For now, though, Faye made it unmistakably clear where authority rests.

If Sonko “remains prime minister,” he warned, “it is because he retains my confidence. When that is no longer the case, there will be a new prime minister.”