Tensions at the highest levels of government: Hamidou Anne points to "personal" disagreements

According to Hamidou Anne, the power struggle at the highest levels of government is not an ideological battle. It is primarily a crisis of legitimacy between two men at the heart of power. A guest on the "Sunday Jury" program, the political analyst, a member of LAPR and former collaborator of Macky Sall, describes a situation that is "unprecedented" in Senegal's recent political history.

“The fundamental antagonism today is taking place within the majority itself,” he asserts. According to him, part of the majority has “fractured” and “fortified itself” in the National Assembly, while another part has found itself in the Executive branch. Recent changes within the state apparatus have, in his view, confirmed “the depth of the divide and the antagonisms.”

But Hamidou Anne dismisses the hypothesis of an ideological disagreement. "These people do not have disagreements on principles or ideology, nor on the direction of public policies. For me, these are personal disagreements between the President of the Republic and the President of the National Assembly," he concludes.

At the heart of this power struggle: the question of legitimacy. "The president of the National Assembly believes that he himself elected the head of state and that the latter is in the presidential chair thanks to his own legitimacy. While the president of the Republic believes that he is elected by the Senegalese citizens," explains the analyst.

However, he qualifies this interpretation. "In March 2024, Senegalese people went to the polls to elect someone. But everyone knows that if this person had been nominated and had gone on their own initiative, they would not have obtained the result they did," he argues, recalling the defeat of the head of state in the 2022 municipal elections in his commune against Dr. Téning Sène.

In the opposition arena, Hamidou Anne advocates a different stance. According to him, there is no question of returning to an "insurrectionary" opposition characterized by insults, threats, and violence.

"We cannot say that we will get out of the CFA franc, that we will solve the problems of the Senegalese in two months. We have all been in power and this experience of the State gives us a responsibility, a form of ethics in the opposition," he argues.

Macky Sall's former associate also believes that the FDR, which he says played a significant role in defending freedoms and democracy, could soon reach "its objective limit." The time has come for a new structure, with the upcoming elections in mind.

In this realignment, Hamidou Anne claims a central place for the APR. "Without offending anyone, the APR constitutes the driving force of the republican and democratic opposition," he affirms.

Its ambition is to unite political parties, trade unions, social forces, associations, youth movements and activists around a common demand: "the consolidation of the Republic".

For Hamidou Anne, the message is therefore clear: the opposition is not disappearing. It is reorganizing. "The opposition is very much present," he concludes.