On the sidelines of his official visit to Qatar on the occasion of the 22nd edition of the Doha Forum, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye met his opponent Karim Wade on Sunday December 8. The interview – placed under the sign of openness despite some disagreements between the two men – was widely commented on in Dakar.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Juliette Dubois
It’s a handshake that gets people talking a lot. Senegal. This Sunday, December 8, the president Bassirou Diomaye Faye met his opponent Karim Wade on the sidelines of the 22nd Doha Forum, Qataran interview of which neither party wishes, at this stage, to confirm who was at the initiative.
On the social network Abdoulaye Wade “ constructive discussions on the political, economic and social situation » of their country.
According to sources close to the executive, the discussions between the two men mainly focused on economic issues, and for good reason: Karim Wade is indeed considered “ a key personality in the business world » in the Gulf region where he has been here for eight years now. For example, his name is regularly mentioned in the management of the Qatari Strategic Investment Fund for Africa, although he does not hold any official position there.
The review of the Karim Wade trial not on the agenda
The Senegalese presidency also specifies that Bassirou Diomaye Faye met Karim Wade as a former minister, not in his capacity as deputy secretary general of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). The meeting was therefore more pragmatic than political, which suggests that the review of Karim Wade’s trial was not on the agenda. If the opponent was pardoned From his conviction for illicit enrichment in 2015, he still has to pay a fine of 138 billion CFA francs.
For their part, Karim Wade’s entourage confides that he maintains very good relations with President Diomaye Faye despite the few political differences between them. If the first had supported the second during the presidential election last March, for example, he withdrew his support for the legislative elections of November 17. A turnaround in which the Senegalese presidency, however, says it sees no problem: for it, the PDS has only played its role of opposition here. And to specify that Karim Wade is free to return to Senegal whenever he wants.