In Senegal, MPs were due to meet on Saturday morning, June 29 for a budget orientation debate, but the National Assembly office ultimately decided to cancel the debate. This is a new episode in the standoff that has been going on for several days over Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s refusal to come and make his general policy statement before the Assembly. The opposition, which has the majority in the chamber, is threatening a motion of censure.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Juliette Dubois
The announcement came shortly before noon: the office of the National Assembly, made up mainly of deputies from the Benno Bokk Yakaar group of former President Macky Sall, decided to cancel the budgetary orientation debate planned with the Minister of Finance.
They explain that they react ” extremely serious remarks » of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. Friday June 29, he announced that he would not come to make his general policy declaration before the National Assembly until the internal regulations were modified. Indeed, the regulation no longer mentions this declaration since the abolition of the position of Prime Minister in 2019. It has not been updated since the reinstatement of the function in 2021.
Read alsoSenegal: Ousmane Sonko explains why he has not yet made a general policy statement
A lack of respect
For the office, the Prime Minister lacks respect for the National Assembly. He also accuses Ousmane Sonko of threatening Senegalese institutions and of seeking to circumvent the Constitution which clearly mentions the general policy declaration, while leaving it to the office of the Assembly to define the modalities.
“ The Prime Minister has reduced the National Assembly to its simplest expression because he says he does not consider the National Assembly, that he will not come to make his general policy declaration, lamented Abdou Mbow, the leader of the Benno Bokk Yakaar parliamentary group of the majority. We asked the President of the National Assembly to contact the President of the Republic so that this problem can be resolved. »
Threat of motion of censure
At the same time, the Benno Bokk Yakaar deputies are threatening the government with a motion of censure and to present a bill to make it impossible for the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly in the event of a blockage.
Ayib Daffé, president of the Yewwi Askan Wi parliamentary group, loyal to Ousmane Sonko, is not worried and refers his colleagues to the rules: “ They just have to make a motion of censure, what are they waiting for? It’s ridiculous! To do it, they have to refer to the internal regulations when they have removed the motion of censure from the internal regulations. We are asking them to resubmit the motion of censure, they don’t want to do it, it’s absurd. We are not blocked, the fact of not making a general policy statement does not prevent the government to implement its policy. »
If the internal regulations are not modified on July 15, Ousmane Sonko announced that he would make his statement before a citizens’ assembly.