French President Emmanuel Macron’s face in the video is unsmiling and perhaps even irritated. “I think they forgot to say ‘thank you’,” Macron said. And, more directly, “I say this to all African governments who did not have the courage to stand up in the face of public opinion that if the French army had not been called in, we would not be in any sovereign state today.” “I will,” he added. In this area. ” Macron raised his eyebrows and wagged his finger.
The scene has sparked an intense reaction since Monday. This is a passage from President Macron’s speech at the annual meeting of French ambassadors who gathered at the Elysée Palace in Paris from their assignments around the world. Journalists were also invited, so Macron must have known his words would reach a wider audience.
Nina Willen, an analyst at Belgium’s Royal Institute of International Relations in Egmont, told DW that the statement was likely a strategic mistake.
“And we also know that during his visits to Africa, he made comments that were not appreciated by African leaders and sometimes made jokes that were really inappropriate,” Willen said.
During his first visit to Africa as president in 2017, Macron caused an uproar during a casual session with students in Burkina Faso, accompanied by then-President Roque-Marc Kabore. He told them that since France was no longer a suzerain, it was Kabore’s job to repair the power system, not France’s. When Kabore quickly left for a bathroom break, Macron shouted: “Look, he’s leaving to fix the air conditioner!” The joke has since been criticized as arrogant.
A more serious incident came to light during President Felix Tshisekedi’s press conference in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2023. President Tshisekedi took offense to comments that he would oversee elections in Africa more strictly than those in Western countries. President Macron tried to downplay the comments, saying they were just one journalist’s opinion and not France’s official position. Mr Tshisekedi angrily interrupted him and said the source was not a journalist but Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister at the time.
Willen said Macron’s recent statements were consistent with past mistakes.
“It’s hard to know if these are thoughtful comments,” Willen said, “or if they just want to come out because they feel it’s the right thing to do.” .
“But there are certainly a significant number of French officials and military personnel who are working hard to shake off the image of France as an arrogant former colonial power in Africa,” Willen said. “Comments like this from Mr. Macron really undermine their efforts on this.”
Where does President Macron’s gratitude go?
Juste Cojo, an assistant professor of security studies at New Jersey City University, told DW he saw no legitimacy in Macron’s comments. Kojo, who previously served in Benin’s army for 20 years, told DW that French deployments to the Sahel region since 2013, for example, were not free, but rather served France’s national interests.
“It’s also nonsense from a historical point of view,” Kodjo said. “President Macron seems to have forgotten that Africans were forced to fight for France during World War I, World War II, and colonial wars in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere. .”
Kodjo said that “Africa has made a significant contribution to the maintenance of French power” in the economic, military, diplomatic and cultural fields.
“France would not be where it is today without Africa’s contributions. Africa received no just compensation from France for its contributions,” he said. “So perhaps President Macron should shut up and say: ‘Thank you Africa for supporting us.'”
President Macron’s domestic pressure
France has lost 58 soldiers in the Sahel region over a 10-year deployment. Diplomats said Mr. Macron was disappointed that the mission failed to bring some stability to the region, DW’s Paris correspondent Lisa Ruiz said.
“But foreign policy is the only area where Macron can still assert himself,” Louis said. “After the snap election, his party is no longer the largest faction in parliament.”
The new prime minister is from a different camp, and Mr Macron’s influence over government policy has diminished.
“It is highly unlikely that such statements will increase the popularity of a weakened president,” Lewis said.
French colonial legacy
Twenty African countries gained independence from France, 14 of them in 1960, the Year of Africa alone.
However, France maintained greater control over these independent states than most other suzerains had over the territories they liberated. Many countries still use one of two variants of the CFA Franc as their currency. Both are pegged to the euro as the successor currency to the French franc.
In 1960, Guinea abolished the Franc CFA in favor of the New Guinean Franc, provoking retaliation. French intelligence services flooded the country with counterfeit notes in an attempt to destabilize the new currency.
France has also interfered with the security structures of some former colonies, and French forces once operated from various bases across Africa.
However, France’s influence is waning. After a series of coups, the Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger ended their long-standing partnership with France and began cooperating with Russia as a new protectorate.
While the Russian military may not be a long-term strategy against rebels, it is valued as a temporary stabilizing measure.
Haut Revoir, France
Gabon and Djibouti are set to be the last remaining bases for French troops, with Senegal and Chad announcing they will end cooperation with their former colonial powers at the end of 2024. Chad’s first base base has already been closed.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara made a similar announcement in his New Year’s address.
“France is not retreating,” President Macron told ambassadors. “We’re just reorganizing.”
“We are very polite, so we let them announce it first,” Macron said.
President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said France’s withdrawal was a sovereign decision by Chad.
“I would like to express my anger at President Macron’s recent comments that border on contempt for Africa and Africans,” Deby said. “I think he’s in the wrong era.”
Professor Kodjo, from New Jersey, also does not believe that Senegal and Chad consulted with France before making the decision.
“Ivory Coast, by contrast, was most likely pushed by Mr. Macron,” Kojo said. “Withdrawing from Ivory Coast and pressuring President Ouattara to accept a French withdrawal is inevitable and clear to Macron that the French presence in Senegal and Chad is no longer welcome. It was probably a strategic move.”
Approximately 600 French soldiers are still stationed in Ivory Coast. The base will now be returned to nationalist forces. In his New Year’s address, Ouattara told his Ivorian compatriots to be proud of their country’s military, whose “modernization is paying off.”
Phil Gayle contributed to this article.
