• DISPATCHES
• SENEGAL

Premier Sonko bids for control of Pastef at the June Congress

The electoral reforms passed last week allow Ousmane Sonko to stand in 2027 – but first he must wrest the party he built from the president he made

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s feud over the future of their Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l'éthique et la fraternité party is set to be resolved at the party’s congress on June. That will determine whether the party fractures or consolidates around its most combustible figure.

Sonko had been the party leader and its main public presence during Macky Sall’s presidency but was barred from contesting the 2024 polls because of a conviction for ‘corrupting youth’ and defamation. That allowed his relative unknown deputy leader Faye to secure the Pastef nomination with Sonko’s support and sweep to power in a landslide victory.

But the two Pastef principals have been at loggerheads over the government’s response to a US$7 billion hidden debt crisis left by Sall. Sonko opposes the International Monetary Fund's demand for a restructuring of the country’s debts, and has the party’s support (AC Vol 67 No 8, Debt time bomb blows open the Sonko-Faye pact & Dispatches 9/3/26, Premier Sonko threatens walk-out as feud with President Faye deepens). That power struggle is also extending to the country’s broader political future, with both Faye and Sonko having their own formal factions within the party.

Last weekend, Faye again warned in a televised speech that the Pastef party was at risk of ‘collapsing’ and stated that the party was ‘bigger than one man’, in a thinly veiled attack on his Prime Minister. If Pastef’s supporters do not change course, the party risks collapsing.’ The party will hold its first congress on 6 June where the battle lines are likely to be clearly drawn.

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