"We're living among madmen!" It's a common phrase in office life around the coffee machine, but less so from the rostrum of a French president, especially when referring to certain African elites. The fact that Emmanuel Macron said this during his speech to ambassadors at the Elysée Palace on Monday, August 28, reflects Paris's frustration at the perceived failure of its African policy, a perception resulting from the July 26 coup in Niger. The news of another coup, this time in Gabon, barely two days after this speech, exacerbated the feeling.
The "madmen," in Macron talk, are the "weird alliance of so-called pan-Africans and neo-imperialists" who reject the French presence in sub-Saharan Africa. That is an interesting description of the dynamics at work in a region where the former colonial power is steadily retreating under the impact of what Macron calls "an epidemic of putsches." Niger was France's refuge when the soldiers based in Mali had to pack up. Now it's the turn of a junta in Niamey to ask the French to leave.
Blustering, France is refusing the diktat of the putschists, keeping its ambassador onsite beyond the ultimatum set for their departure and betting on dissent in the junta and the effect of sanctions. Macron is trying to save his honor by posing as the defender of democracy: France cannot abandon, to hostage-takers, an elected president whose "courage and commitment" are in line with the values defended by the West.
The French president also took a passing swipe at Western capitals calling for appeasement. Washington, careful not to call a coup a coup in Niamey and said to be ready to compromise with the junta to save its military bases, even got a special mention. France's Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna returned to the subject on Tuesday with the same poke. She said that Paris is demanding a return to full constitutional order in Niger, "out of loyalty to democratic principles (...) even if others are hesitant." It would appear that France feels somewhat alone in this position.
This position, a touch quixotic, also has a certain amount of panache to it. Macron backs it up with an additional argument: the geopolitical factor. In another part of his speech, he referred to the "risk of weakening the West, and Europe in particular," in the face of powers that are challenging the UN multilateral system and seeking to establish an international order other than that established by the United States in the 20th century. These powers, particularly China and Russia, are active in Africa. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Moscow was behind the events in Niger, the efforts of Putin's regime to exploit anti-French sentiment in the countries of the Sahel are well known. The results are already tangible in Mali and Burkina Faso, where the Wagner militias have taken up residence, as in a number of other countries.
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