Powerful Senegal party rejects budget in committee
The party, which controls 130 of the National Assembly’s 165 seats, cited disagreements over budget priorities and financing methods, and called for the protection of social spending on healthcare, education, water infrastructure and other essential services.
Pastef's powerful leader Ousmane Sonko has said his party would not accept the 2026 revised finance bill, nor a 2027 draft budget. (AFP)
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DAKAR - Senegal's powerful Pastef party, which holds a massive legislative majority, has rejected a 2026 revised budget bill in a parliamentary committee, as the country struggles to tackle its colossal debt.
The move signals the measure's almost certain failure when it comes before the west African country's full National Assembly on Tuesday.
Rejection of a budget measure would call into question the government's ability to address Senegal's massive public-sector debt, which was estimated at 132 percent of GDP at the end of 2024.
Pastef's powerful leader Ousmane Sonko, who is engaged in a dramatic political feud with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, already said Monday his party would not accept the 2026 revised finance bill, nor a 2027 draft budget.
Senegal said it would use the framework following an announcement last month by the International Monetary Fund that a preliminary agreement had been reached on a new 36-month, $2.2-billion debt programme aimed at stabilising the country's public finances.
After what it said were two days of deliberations in parliament's Finance and Budgetary Control Committee, Pastef said late Friday that it had "decided not to approve the 2026 Supplementary Finance Bill (PLFR) in its current form".
The party controls 130 of Parliament's 165 seats.
Sonko is Senegal's former prime minister but was fired by the president in May. The two are erstwhile allies, whose relationship soured in part over how to tackle the massive debt.
Stating that the National Assembly is not a "mere rubber-stamp body", Pastef said in its Friday statement that it was willing "to engage with the executive branch" on the bill's conditions.
It demanded the re-examination of cuts affecting social spending, including on healthcare, education, training, water infrastructure and other projects.
And it called for the protection of household purchasing power and a sustainable reduction in energy costs, among multiple other demands.
Pastef said it remained "open to dialogue with the government ahead of the plenary session, with the aim of reaching an agreement".