“The age of Françafrique is over”: in Gabon, Macron describes himself as a “neutral interlocutor”

by time news

Françafrique belongs to the past. This is the message that Emmanuel Macron wanted to send to Gabon, on the first day of his tour in Africa, where he must cross four countries. “This age of Françafrique is well over and I sometimes have the feeling that mentalities are not evolving at the same pace as us when I read, I hear, I see that France is still attributed intentions that she does not have, that she no longer has”, said, before the French community, the President of the Republic, describing himself as a “neutral interlocutor”.

“We still also seem to be expecting positions from her that she refuses to take and I fully assume that. In Gabon as elsewhere, France is a neutral interlocutor who speaks to everyone and whose role is not to interfere in internal political exchanges,” he insisted.

The Gabonese opposition has accused the French president in recent days of “doubting” President Ali Bongo by making this visit to Libreville in the midst of an election year in Gabon. “I did not come to invest anyone. I only came to show my friendship and my consideration to a country and a brotherly people, ”insisted Emmanuel Macron.

The Head of State had already outlined in a speech in Paris on Monday the end of the French “pre-square” in West Africa and called for new partnerships on the continent, far from opaque ties and support for the leaders in place. inherited from the colonial period and inherent to “Françafrique”.

A new “partnership” with African countries

On the subject of the forced and forced departure of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso, Emmanuel Macron clarified that the French military reorganization was “neither a withdrawal nor a disengagement”. “It is not a question in this case of a withdrawal or a disengagement but of adapting a device”, by redefining the “needs” of the partner countries and by offering “more cooperation and training”, has he specified. The last French soldiers left Mali in August, while the last soldiers were to do the same with regard to Burkina Faso in recent days.

The Head of State is taking part this Thursday in Libreville with several Central African Heads of State in a summit devoted to the protection of tropical forests. This summit, called One Forest Summit and co-organized by France and Gabon, is intended to find “concrete solutions” for the conservation of forests, the protection of the climate and species in a context of climate change, but “will not have not for the purpose of adopting new political declarations”, the organizers underlined in advance.

Taking the example of this summit, Macron repeated his desire to “build a balanced partnership” and to “carry out common causes” with the countries of the continent, whether on the climate, biodiversity or the economic and industrial challenges of the 21st century. .

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