French Senators Urge Macron to Take Stand on Western Sahara Sovereignty

"In Morocco, French procrastination on the Sahara (while Spain and Germany have recognized Moroccan sovereignty) and the Quai d’Orsay’s balancing act with Algeria are pushing the Royal Palace to seek military or economic partners elsewhere than in Paris," the French senators write in this open letter, demonstrating that France is gradually disappearing from the African continent. "Today Niger, yesterday Mali, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso have rejected France, the French forces, the French companies. At our expense, after the failure of Operation Barkhane, here are the Wagner militias, little scrupulous about human rights or democracy, but perfectly available to all dictators or leaders maintaining themselves in power by rallying their populations against the former ’colonial power’," they point out.

They will emphasize that this movement in sub-Saharan Africa "is spreading with demonstrations and anti-French acts as far as countries considered close to us, such as Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal. In North Africa, what disappointments there too." Relations between France and Algeria are not all rosy either. "President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who came to power under difficult conditions due to the Hirak, blows hot and cold, sometimes talking about rapprochement and an official visit (regularly canceled) and sometimes about the French ’Great Satan’ responsible for all the ills of the Algerian people." Similar situation in Tunisia. "In Tunisia, the erratic President Kaïs Saïed is turning alternately towards the United States, the European Union, the Arab world, and less and less towards France which no longer has a privileged role," say the French senators.

Deploring that they are described as "nostalgic for Savorgnan de Brazza, for Françafrique," these French elected officials assure that they do not dream "of French West Africa or French Equatorial Africa," because "the Foccart era is totally over." They say they do not understand "the evolution of French policy in Africa, both in the military field, in the notion of co-development or in cultural and linguistic cooperation." According to them, "today, the Françafrique of yesterday is replaced by the military Russafrique, by the economic Chinafrique or the diplomatic Americafrique." "And what to say, unfortunately, of the regression of the Francophonie compared to the English language?" question the French senators.

And to ask President Emmanuel Macron: "is it not time to rethink our vision of Africa and its link with France? You have had the intention to do so on several occasions... It is probably time, while Africa, a friendly continent, no longer seems to understand France, and is increasingly contesting its role and its presence."