After three years of emptiness, Senegal finds a prime minister. President Macky Sall has chosen for this post one of his former ministers, Amadou Ba, 61 years old. The office of Prime Minister was abolished by Macky Sall in 2019 and then restored in December 2021. The Senegalese president, however, waited until the local and legislative elections in July were over to make his choice.
The new head of government was former Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2019 then of Foreign Affairs between 2019 and 2020. In a context of soaring prices, Amadou Ba will be responsible for carrying out “extensive consultations” and to take “new measures” on the social level, Macky Sall said Friday evening in an address to the nation broadcast on national television.
Unrest in the Assembly
The presidential camp came in slightly ahead after the legislative elections. He had kept an absolute majority in the National Assembly thanks to the rallying of an opposition deputy. But the country remains sharply divided politically. The return to parliament, at the beginning of this week, was marked by a series of incidents between deputies, to such an extent that the gendarmes had to intervene within Parliament itself.
Concentration of power
Supposed to make the functioning of the state more fluid, the abolition of the post of Prime Minister in May 2019 had established a new balance between the powers by reinforcing the presidential character of the Senegalese regime. The measure had been perceived by the opposition and part of civil society as an attempt to seize power on the part of Macky Sall.
Nearly three and a half years later, he is still criticized by the opposition for his solitary conduct of power. Opponents also lend him the plan to run for a third term in 2024. Macky Sall still remains unclear about his intentions.
On Friday, a concert to be held on Saturday and organized by civil society associations for term limits in Africa was banned by the authorities due to “risk of trouble”triggering a wave of indignation on social networks.