A year after his arrival at the Elysee, Emmanuel Macron multiplies the trips to Africa without necessarily breaking in a Françafrique resuscitated after two false funerals pronounced by his two predecessors.
In Tunis, the French president welcomed on his arrival, Wednesday 31 January 2018, in a new African tour circumscribed apparently to the countries which knew recent political alternations, a “democratic model in the Arab world, which must be supported, because it is a hope and a laboratory for the whole region “.
His speech to a parliament deserted by leftist parties sounded like a criticism of Nicolas Sarkozy about the current situation in Libya: “Europe and the United States have a responsibility in the Libyan case. “He said, in particular.
In Dakar, where he begins this February 2 a visit that will take him to Saint-Louis, former capital of French West Africa (AOF), today threatened by the waves of the ocean, the leader of “La République in March “should continue on the praise of democracy in the same vein as his speech in Ouagadougou or that of Accra.
The replenishment of funds from the Global Partnership for Education and the visit of the Regional Express Train (TER) site, a major railway project (entrusted to Altsom) to unclog Dakar and bring it closer to the new Dakar airport and the press conference will be the great moments of a tour that is one of the dailies of Dakar.
If he is different from Nicolas Sarkozy on his vision of Africa, “the continent that will shake the XNIXXème century”, he affirmed on Twitter a year ago, the current tenant of the Elysee seems to walk on the steps of François Hollande.
With the difference that his predecessor, visionary, had invested in securing the Sahel and the stabilization of Mali, his feat of arms. Emmanuel Macron, himself a politician from the world of finance, seems to insist on the economy without indicating a concrete way for security policy in the Sahel.
If he has made a good commitment to increase 6’s official development aid to 15 billion euros by 2022, which would represent 0,55% of French GDP, despite the promise ofGleneaglesfrom 2005, he remains silent on the role of France in the G5 in the Sahel. Terrorist funding announcements do not correspond to troop movements on the ground. The tendency is to restrict the Barkhane force into flash units just as the terrorists, reinvigorated, attack the barracks.
Less committed than his predecessor on the Sahel issue, Emmanuel Macron seems to accept the idea of an unstable Mali, a big sick West African body that must be assisted without necessarily delivering, lack of logistical means and support from its European and African partners. For, it would cost the French president, in financial and military means but also in odds of unpopularity, to go to a hand-to-hand with jihadists who are gaining ground and are now the biggest threat to peace in the Sahel and the Sahel. Maghreb. The Sahelistan, concept born of a strategic error of Nicolas Sarkozy to attack Libya and delayed by François Hollande, is running and it takes more than speech to break the fabric.
