Sonko re-elected Pastef leader establishing him as Faye’s main opponent for 2029 presidential election

The speaker of the parliament of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko, has been confirmed again this Saturday at the head of the main opposition party, Pastef-Les Patriots, during the party’s first national congress since its creation in 2014, in a context of strong political tension after his dismissal as prime minister by the current head of state, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

The confirmation of Sonko, whose candidacy was the only one admitted by Pastef, reinforces his role as a central figure in the Senegalese political landscape in full rupture with the executive, of which he was part of until just a few months ago.

This first congress has been presented by Ousmane Sonko as a “decisive step in the transformation of Pastef”, in a dynamic of “reorganisation, strengthening of its functioning and its capacity to carry forward the party’s political project in the long term”, as reported by the Senegalese agency “APS”.

Sonko’s continuity at the head of the party comes at a particularly delicate phase for the Senegalese economy, with markets watching closely how the country will face its growing debt commitments and how it will try to rebuild financial credibility after the discovery in 2024 of billions of dollars in previously undeclared liabilities.

The executive is holding talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to close a new financing programme at a critical moment, marked by those billions of dollars in hidden debt inherited from the previous government, a circumstance that led the organisation to freeze a US$1.8 billion loan in 2024.

Sonko, known for his very tough stance against the IMF, even rejected the possibility of a debt restructuring, a position of great firmness that contrasts with the more moderate tone of Faye and the new prime minister, Al Aminou Lo, who has not publicly set his position on this matter for now.

Political tension has intensified in Senegal after the relationship between the two leaders deteriorated since Sonko’s dismissal as head of government and his subsequent election as president of Parliament, a position with notable institutional weight on the Executive’s actions. Everything points to the two leaders measuring forces at the polls in 2029.