In Senegal, the executive denigrates its institutions: “It is the republican contract that is faltering”
While Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko risks alienating the judiciary by criticizing the justice system, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has made "charged" remarks about the police. These statements are fueling controversy and potentially fueling citizens' distrust of their institutions.
“One of the biggest problems in this country is justice.” This statement by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on July 1 has “continued to make waves,” writes the Dakar newspaper Le Quotidien . It came shortly after the Senegalese Supreme Court rejected the appeal by Ousmane Sonko’s lawyers in the case of his January 2024 conviction to a six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation of former Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang.
What has "shaken the political-media space" and continues to fuel the debate, continues the daily Enquête + , is this "new development: criticism [of the judicial institution] no longer comes only from opponents; it is also the work of the majority, of the regime in power." And to emphasize that the Prime Minister has also requested the reopening of the files concerning him .
Between historical and prospective analysis, this media notes that Ousmane Sonko is the first current head of the executive to request a review of his trial, and that a favorable outcome to this request would eventually force him to resign “to put justice and the government at ease.”
The Quotidien, for its part, is interested in the “resentment” that has germinated within the Union of Magistrates of Senegal (UMS), the only professional union,
Courrier International
