Senegal has just entered a period of major political turbulence. By abruptly dismissing Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has brought into the open a deep fracture that Dakar had sensed for months. Behind the presidential decree read Friday evening on national television lies far more than a simple cabinet reshuffle: it is the spectacular implosion of a political duo that, until recently, was portrayed as the symbol of Senegal’s democratic renewal.
The image is striking. The man who helped propel Bassirou Diomaye Faye to the highest office in the country, the one who transformed popular anger into an unstoppable electoral wave, has now been removed from power without ceremony. Ousmane Sonko, a charismatic figure and the true political engine behind the 2024 transition, is now paying the price of a coexistence at the top of the state that had become impossible.
In Senegal, no one ignores the reality of the balance of power. Without Sonko, Bassirou Diomaye Faye would likely never have reached the presidential palace. Barred from running in the presidential election because of legal troubles during the era of Macky Sall, Sonko chose his loyal ally as a substitute candidate, rallying behind him a frustrated youth exhausted by years of political tensions, unemployment, and social disillusionment.
For months, the populist and pan-Africanist movement driven by Sonko galvanized massive crowds. To many Senegalese, he embodied a radical break from the old political system. But once power was secured, the internal contradictions of the new regime quickly surfaced. Rivalries for influence, leadership struggles, and strategic disagreements gradually turned what was once presented as an indestructible alliance into a political battlefield.
The dismissal of the Prime Minister now appears as an admission of profound failure — that of a government unable to manage its own internal balance despite holding an overwhelming parliamentary majority. It is also the failure of a political project that promised a “new governance” model but has already become trapped in factional infighting and personal power struggles.
Ousmane Sonko’s immediate reaction, declaring on Facebook that he would sleep “with a light heart,” revealed how complete the rupture had become. In the streets of Dakar, his supporters quickly gathered outside his home, chanting his name in a show of strength that demonstrated the former Prime Minister still commands considerable popular influence.
This crisis now opens a period of major uncertainty for Senegal. By distancing himself from Sonko, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is taking a huge political risk: alienating part of the activist base that helped bring the movement to power. More importantly, he is exposing the deep fragilities of a regime that came to office amid popular enthusiasm but is already being overtaken by the traditional dynamics of political power.
Abderrazzak Boussaid / Le7tv