In jab at PM, Senegal president says Pastef party bigger than any one man

Tensions between Senegal's leaders came to the fore on Saturday as President Bassirou Diomaye Faye sent a message to Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko: their Pastef party is bigger than any one man.

In a televised interview, Faye warned of "excessive personalisation," saying the party "risks being destroyed if its participants don't change course."

Sonko has a passionate following among the country's disaffected youth, with whom his pan-African, anti-French rhetoric struck a chord ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

But he was barred from running and instead backed Faye who later appointed him prime minister.

Their Pastef party won outright in the first round on a promise of a profound political shake-up, vowing to fight what they said was corruption and mismanagement of government affairs.

The victory came after angry demonstrators had taken to the streets in deadly protests to rail against ex-president Macky Sall and the possibility he might try for a third term.

"The sacrifices, which resulted in deaths, injuries and imprisonments, were not made for the sake of any one man but for the very essence of the project" to change the system in Senegal, Faye said.

"We have always sought to distinguish [the people and] the project, which should be depersonalised from the leader who embodies it," he said.

But cracks have since emerged, including public disagreements over coalition leadership and debt restructuring talks, disagreements that rattled Senegal’s international bonds.

After parliamentary changes to electoral eligibility rules last month, Sonko is expected to run for the top job in the 2029 election.

But for now, the sitting president reminded him, Faye holds all the power.

If Sonko "remains prime minister," he warned, "it is because he retains my confidence. When that is no longer the case, there will be a new prime minister."