in Dakar, the power continues to target the opponent Ousmane Sonko

He leaves the Dakar court in the middle of a compact crowd of young activists who have come to support him. Ousmane Sonko, leader of the opposition to President Macky Sall, stands Thursday, February 16 in the middle of the sunroof of his car, arms raised and fingers in a V, as if victorious.

His trial for “defamation, insults and forgery”, brought by the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang, was adjourned to March 16. A conviction could lead to his ineligibility for the 2024 presidential election.

Strong questioning

Moments later, the street shakes. Its activists are dispersed with tear gas canisters. Gendarmes, helmeted and masked, surround his car. A man breaks the rear window, activates the opening of the door then extracts Ousmane Sonko, pulling him by the arm.

The latter remains impassive. ” Am I under arrest? Do the police have the right to extract someone from their vehicle? “, he asks. The action, filmed live by his lawyer, is broadcast on social networks, which the politician masters perfectly.

If he is finally released and brought back to his house in a police van, the scene illustrates yet another spectacular confrontation between Ousmane Sonko and the government in place. A year before the presidential election scheduled for February 25, 2024, tension is growing around the succession to Macky Sall.

Ousmane Sonko, divisive presidential candidate

Aged 48, Ousmane Sonko, former deputy to the National Assembly of Senegal from 2017 to 2022 and current mayor of Ziguinchor (south of the country), is a divisive political figure. His brilliant academic career led him to the National School of Administration of Senegal, but he only entered politics in 2017 at the head of the party of “African Patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity “.

He fails at 3^e place in the 2019 presidential election with 15% of the vote, taking advantage of its relative youth and its anti-system positioning in a population of which more than half is under 20 years old.

Since then, he has remained a fierce opponent of the power in place and has shaped an image of an incorruptible man. His sovereignist, pan-Africanist and social discourse attacks elites and corruption. Above all, he attacks the economic and political influence exercised according to him by France, a former colonial power. “We have nothing against France. We have a discourse that can be embarrassing because it is a discourse that calls for a rupture in relations”he said last January to France 24.

Charged with rape and placed under judicial supervision in March 2021, after being targeted in February 2021 by a complaint from an employee of a beauty salon, he accuses the government of hatching a plot aimed at his ineligibility. The affair then sparked several days of deadly riots, looting and destruction that left fourteen people dead in the country. Macky Sall then defended himself from any manipulation, accusing him of being a ” stirrer “ and one “populist”. Justice ordered in January a referral, at a later date, of Ousmane Sonko to court in this case.

Uncertainty about the succession of Macky Sall

These strong tensions arise in the context of the succession of President Macky Sall, elected for seven years in 2012, then for a five-year term in 2019. Article 27 of the Constitution normally excludes him from a 3^e mandate. But Macky Sall leaves room for doubt so far. On December 9, 2021, he declared in an interview for France 24: “I will deal with this debate in due course, but I will never take any action that is undemocratic or unconstitutional. »

As Ousmane Sonko positions himself as a serious rival for 2024 and the opposition continues its demonstrations of force, many of his meetings have been banned in recent months and many activists have been imprisoned. The keyword #FreeSenegal denounces the authoritarian excesses of power and the caporalization of public media, such as the Senegalese Radio-Television entrusted to Racine Talla, a member of the ruling party.

For Ousmane Sonko, his arrest shows “the true face of President Macky Sall” and illustrious “the permanent persecution against all dissenting voices”.