Development over democracy

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THE INSIDE VIEW

The past week of elections in Britain, France and Greece offer mixed tidings to Africa. The big economic message – and the voters’ insistent rejection of austerity – is that Europe’s economic travails are far from over. That means weaker European demand for African exports, as well as shrinking and more conditional aid budgets. Only Germany, which boasts a 6 billion euro Africa programme, is boosting aid in 2012, mainly to resource-rich and strategic countries.

France’s election of President François Hollande on 7 May and the departure of Nicolas Sarkozy was seen as generally good news by Africa’s reformers and as at least a challenge by the kleptocrats. Hollande’s appointment of lawyer William Bourdon as advisor breaks with tradition. Bourdon has pursued corruption and human rights cases against African leaders such as Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaoré and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, who had always relied on France’s protection.

French Africa policy could change for the better if Hollande maintains this break with the Françafrique networks. His likely appointment of others such as former head of Agence Française de Développement Jean-Michel Severino and Algerian-born Euro MP Kader Arif suggests a substantial shift from the Sarkozy-Jacques Chirac era. However, the closeness of Paris to the pillars of la Francophonie in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal is unlikely to alter, even if Hollande shows more steel in directing French aid to the poorest countries such as Niger and Chad.