Senegal: Amadou Ba has been appointed Prime Minister – RFI

Published on: 09/17/2022 – 14:52Modified on: 09/17/2022 – 20:26 End of suspense in Senegal. Amadou Ba was appointed Prime Minister this Saturday, September 17. He is a former Minister of Economy and Finance and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. The composition of the new government is still awaited. With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac The news was announced on RTS, public radio and television. Amadou Ba was chosen “for his competence, his commitment, his dedication, his pragmatism and his efficiency”, indicated the secretary general of the presidency during the announcement of the appointment of the new Prime Minister at midday.Amadou Ba, 61, has a political profile. Former Minister of Economy and Finance from 2013 to 2019, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2019 and 2020, before being dismissed from the government in November 2020. At the time, some observers attributed him with presidential ambitions, who would have overshadowed the Head of State. But Amadou Ba assured Macky Sall of his loyalty. After a period of withdrawal, he returned to service during the local elections in January, with the mission of coordinating the campaign of the ruling coalition. The local elections of last January, then the legislative ones of July, allowed his return to grace. His name was one of those circulating in recent months for this post of Prime Minister. He was received in the morning by the Head of State Macky Sall at the presidential palace. “For several years, the President of the Republic has always had confidence in me. And he never ceased to mean to me and to magnify this confidence,” declared the new Prime Minister. I thank and congratulate the outgoing government for its commitment and the quality work accomplished over more than 22 months.
Likewise, I congratulate Prime Minister @amadou_Ba_ for this new mission and wish him every success. pic.twitter.com/Z4ZnRDI4bj— Macky Sall (@Macky_Sall) September 17, 2022 “The profile of a dolphin” by Macky SallIt is therefore the end of a very long wait of almost ten months, since this post of Prime Minister, removed by the Head of State in May 2019, had been reinstated in December 2021. But he had not been filled so far. Amadou Ba was appointed in a complicated political context for the majority, while the he opposition gained ground during the last polls and before the 2024 presidential election, against the backdrop of the debate on a possible third candidacy of the Head of State, who still remains unclear about his intentions. The choice of Amadou Ba – and not of a more erased personality – is he an indicator of Macky Sall’s intentions for the 2024 presidential election? “He has the profile of a dolphin,” said a political columnist, for whom this appointment “ruled out the possibility of a third candidacy” of Macky Sall. So, could Amadou Ba present himself against Ousmane Sonko, his former colleague at Taxes and Domains? The president did not, in any case, settle the debate during his address to the Nation on Friday evening. Debate revived by Aminata Touré, former Prime Minister of Macky Sall, very angry after the appointment of the President of the Assembly. For her: no question of a third term. The head of state, he assured that “the cost of living, youth employment, high rents will be the top priorities of the new government”. “I think Macky Sall’s plan was not Amadou Ba. Because there were bickering between them. (…) He no longer had a choice. All this shows that he is at the end of his reign. » Amadou Ba appointed Prime Minister of Senegal: the reaction of opponent Ahmed Aïdara Charlotte Idrac