Senegal's president sacks PM: Senegalese Parliament dissolved • FRANCE 24 English

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Outside Ousmane Sonko's home in Dakar on Saturday, supporters have gathered to show solidarity with Senegal's now former prime minister.

[00:00:10]She spent the night with us here yesterday.

[00:00:12]In the central suburb of Sicap Dieuppeul, many are struggling to make sense of the events. Some are seething with anger following the dismissal of the Pastef leader, the party that holds the majority in the National Assembly.

[00:00:26]The president betrayed the project we carried and sold to Senegalese people. I say it loud and clear, he betrayed us.

[00:00:35]I'm shocked by how things turned out. I spent the night here outside Sonko's house. We'll fight to make him our president in 2029.

[00:00:42]At Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, people are more divided. The campus was the epicenter of protests against former president Macky Sall between 2021 and 2024.

[00:00:52]Students were at the forefront of the movement that brought Diomaye Faye and Sonko into power. Today, many of them feel disillusioned. We're not here to defend Sonko or Diomaye Faye. They're only in this for their own interests.

[00:01:03]Diomaye is the president. He has the right to make decisions.

[00:01:07]Friendship above all. They are friends.

[00:01:10]Politics should not have come between them.

[00:01:13]Since Friday, Senegal has been thrust into a politically complicated situation. Bassirou Diomaye Faye at the helm of the executive and Ousmane Sonko leading the parliamentary majority. A situation with far-reaching consequences, according to this legal expert and civil society figure.

[00:01:30]The most serious consequences are at the institutional level, specifically when the executive and the legislature end up facing off against each other.

[00:01:39]It is the kind of fratricidal conflict that must be avoided over time because the country would simply become ungovernable.

[00:01:48]As of Saturday, no information has emerged from the presidential palace as to who will be the country's next prime minister.

[00:01:54]With Tabaski, one of the most important holidays in the Senegalese religious calendar, just a few days away, whatever does come next unfold at a moment when the country is already bracing for a pause, and when many Senegalese are weary of political polemic and hungry for concrete action.