While every step of the new Senegalese president is scrutinized, as his political intentions still remain a mystery a month after he took power, his visit to Abidjan, Tuesday May 7, was by far the most anticipated trip abroad. A priori, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Alassane Ouattara do not have much in common. The first claims to be a “left-wing pan-Africanist”, while the second is an unabashed right-wing liberal; the Senegalese, 44, intends to embody the rupture, while the Ivorian president, 82, advocates continuity.
Finally, Mr. Diomaye Faye has just democratically imposed alternation in Senegal, while Alassane Ouattara is serving his third term, and has still not said whether he will run for a fourth in 2025. Two men who are few things seem similar at first glance, but at the head of the French-speaking heavyweights of West Africa, two states historically linked and politically aligned in West Africa, a region in the midst of crisis since the series of coups d'état in Sahel.
Despite their differences, the Ivorian and the Senegalese showed their closeness at the end of their first tête-à-tête, ensuring that they were determined to continue the “excellent and fraternal” relationship between their countries. The Ivorian president sent his “warm congratulations on [the] brilliant election” of his new counterpart, on March 24, with whom he shares a “total convergence of points of view” and is “completely in tune on international and political issues. regional cooperation”.
“Work to dispel misunderstandings”
Bassirou Diomaye Faye immediately illustrated this convergence by lifting the veil for the first time on his position in the face-to-face confrontation between the juntas in power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and the rest of the Economic Community of States of West Africa (ECOWAS), which they claimed to leave. ECOWAS is “a formidable integration tool” that “we will benefit from preserving”, declared the Senegalese president during a press briefing, also saying he was “convinced that we must continue to act in solidarity within the "ECOWAS area, to make the necessary reforms and to work to dispel the misunderstandings which cannot fail to arise".
According to Caroline Roussy, research director at the Africas program at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), “Bassirou Diomaye Faye seems to want to pose as a mediator to prevent the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) from leaving definitely from ECOWAS”. The new leader says he is aware of “the risk of decay” of the regional community whose links he wishes to “strengthen”.
Democratically elected and supported by young people to whom he promised "a policy of rupture" and more "sovereignty", a popular speech in the Sahel, the Senegalese president embodies a political renewal which could facilitate exchanges with military regimes. He shares with them aspirations that are as symbolic as they are strategic in West Africa, such as the exit of the CFA franc, considered a colonial heritage.
The subject, technically complex, was not discussed with Alassane Ouattara, according to the two heads of state. The Senegalese president only mentioned “necessary reforms” to be undertaken within “the regional spaces that we share”, including the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The Ivorian president could be in favor of a change of currency, at least in its denomination initially. The former senior official of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) himself announced, alongside Emmanuel Macron in December 2019, the creation of the Eco to replace the CFA franc.
“Proximity diplomacy”
“Bassirou Diomaye Faye is in a position that requires a lot of diplomatic intelligence,” recognizes Mamadou Hady Dème, political science researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, for whom the challenge is not to “crisp” the juntas. . Tuesday, he said he was “counting on the wisdom” of “his elder” to work for the stability of a region shaken by insecurity and the coming to power in Mali (2020), Burkina Faso (2022) and Niger (2023) of putschists who delay any democratic process and harden their exercise of power.
But while Alassane Ouattara maintains frosty relations with the Sahelian military regimes, it is Senegal, a rare country in the region to be able to speak to all heads of state, which could be the key to peace. appeasement in West Africa. Ousmane Sonko, the Senegalese Prime Minister, announced on Monday that he will soon visit Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Regional policy is already establishing itself as a priority of the new Senegalese regime. After traveling to Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, the choice of a trip to Ivory Coast for the first visit of Bassirou Diomaye Faye to a country not bordering Senegal illustrates "the local diplomacy" that Dakar now intends to give priority, indicates Mamadou Hady Dème, who recalls the eagerness that Mr. Faye's predecessors had to go to France: three weeks after his election in 2012, the outgoing president Macky Sall (2012-2024) was welcomed by Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée. “It’s a first break,” underlines the academic.
