2023-11-08 11:27:47
A French soldier at Diori-Hamani airport in Niamey, Niger, August 2, 2023. JONATHAN SARAGO / AFP
How to save France’s place in Africa? The report of the parliamentary information mission presented Wednesday November 8 in the Foreign Affairs Committee can be read as a survival guide in times of crisis. Faced with demonstrations of hostility towards French policy in Africa, deputies Bruno Fuchs (Democratic Movement) and Michèle Tabarot (Les Républicains), co-editors of the 175-page report, are dissecting this groundswell which, they warn, « risks spreading without our country being able to react ».
For several months, they interviewed heads of state, diplomats and soldiers, in France and French-speaking Africa – outside the Maghreb – to probe Paris’ failures on the continent. And their observation is implacable.
From the outset, the two deputies point out the inconsistency of the French discourse towards African states. If, from his first mandate, Emmanuel Macron, like his predecessors, promised to turn the page on the troubled relations of Françafrique in favor of a strategy focused on civil societies, he did not succeed in burying the image of ‘a France allied with authoritarian regimes. His presence at the funeral of Idriss Déby Itno, in Chad in 2021, seated alongside his son and successor, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, was perceived by African opinions as the dubbing of a family transition outside of all legality constitutional.
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France, on the other hand, has shown itself to be inflexible in the face of the juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso or more recently in Niger, by refusing to recognize the new military authorities of this country. An attitude which, according to the authors of the report, makes French doctrine illegible. “Not putting an end to this policy of double standards means continuing to fuel skepticism and rejection, and to fuel the fantasy of a hidden French agenda,” they note, recommending a “just distance”.
« We must continue to advocate for our democratic values, but not interfere in internal affairs. On the LGBT issue in particular, which is criminalized in many countries, to say that we, French, are right, that we must comply with our values, is to accentuate the rejection. When we deal with the Chinese, the Qataris or the Saudis, we do not give moral lessons on democracy », explains Bruno Fuchs.
Preeminence of the military over diplomats
Generally speaking, parliamentarians regret a lack of knowledge of the continent among those involved in French policy in Africa. “ Few people truly understand Africa in its subtlety », they write, before castigating a vision of Africa tinged with “references inherited from the era of Françafrique and willingly essentialist ».
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