In jab at PM, Senegal president says party bigger than any one man

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DAKAR — Simmering tensions between Senegal's president and firebrand prime minister, a dynamic duo that has seemingly soured, came to a head late Saturday with the president's suggestion their party was bigger than any one man.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye's statement was a clear shot at his charismatic prime minister and onetime mentor, Ousmane Sonko, whose outsized sway helped bring the pair into office.

Their Pastef party, Faye warned in a televised interview, "risks being destroyed if its participants do not change course".

Senegal is in the unusual situation of having a president, Faye, who owes his position in large part to his prime minister, Sonko, who would almost certainly have taken the top job had he not been barred from running.

Their Pastef party won outright in the first round of the March 2024 elections on a promise of a profound political shake-up, vowing to fight what they said was corruption and mismanagement of government affairs.

The victory came after angry demonstrators had taken to the streets in deadly protests to rail against ex-president Macky Sall and the possibility he might try for a third term.

"The sacrifices, which resulted in deaths, injuries and imprisonments, were not made for the sake of any one man but for the very essence of the project", to change the system in Senegal, Faye said.

"We have always sought to distinguish (the people and) the project, which should be depersonalised from the leader who embodies it," he said.

Despite Sonko's popular appeal, Faye holds all the real power as president and can fire his head of government with a simple decree.

"I built this party with my own hands, with complete humility and through collaboration, at every single stage of the process", alongside its members, Faye said.

He warned that if Sonko "remains prime minister, it is because he retains my confidence. When that is no longer the case, there will be a new prime minister".

"The survival of the project cannot go hand in hand with excessive personalisation", Faye added.

Sonko generated a passionate following among Senegal's disaffected youth ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

He struck a chord in particular with his pan-Africanist rhetoric and tough stance on former colonial power France.

In a thunderous outburst to their Pastef party faithful in early July, Sonko accused Faye of a "failure of leadership" by not backing him up enough against his many critics.