MESSAGE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY : Dakar, February 27, 2023 / On February 16, 2023, Senegal and the entire world discovered, stunned, the surreal scene that took place on the western coast of the Senegalese capital. The social media, televisions and newspapers around the world relayed the assault of I had just, once again, been victim at the instigation of President Macky SALL. Senegalese police (the members of the elite unit of the national police (B.I.P), assisted by the G.I.G.N, the elite unit of the national gendarmerie,) smashed my car window with an incredible violence to remove me forcibly from the vehicle and subsequently force me into one of their vans. This felony could have caused physical damage worse than the scratches on my feet caused by the shards of glass. This felony could have caused physical damage worse than the scratches on my feet caused by the shards of glass.

A few minutes earlier, the same security forces denied me a clear route and forced my convoy to drive through a booby-trapped tunnel where regime militiamen armed with grenade launchers and firearms were standing. These militiamen did not hesitate to flood the tunnel with tear gas grenades as soon as my car, under police duress, entered it. This is undoubtedly an attempt to undermine my physical integrity that will not go unchallenged. Indeed, this premeditated attack adds to a very long list of violence and deliberate violations of my rights since I entered politics in January 2014.

Beyond my person, the members and supporters of our party, PASTEF/LES PATRIOTES, are victims of the repressive and violent regime established by President Macky SALL for the sole purpose of clinging to power. In addition to this targeted and systematic persecution, there is a campaign of defamation, denigration and demonization with discriminatory and regionalist stenches. We are constantly subjected to acts of intimidation and moral harassment by the police and the gendarmerie, not to mention threats and physical attacks against our convoys.
I am the only politician whose most elementary rights pertaining to the respect of private and family life and freedom of movement, are systematically violated. I am the only person whose home is completely blocked by the police before, during and after every summons by the justice. I have been under judicial review for more than 2 years and prevented from leaving the national territory. I am a citizen who, for more than 2 years, has never received a favorable decision on my requests for authorization to leave the Senegalese territory despite my status as a Member of Parliament, before, and as a mayor today.

To the observers of the Senegalese political life to whom I address this message, I say that for 11 years, Mr. Macky SALL has exercised the presidential function in a violent way because he has neither the talent, nor the genius, nor the scale of a function which requires a high level of tolerance and acceptance of the dissident opinion. Despite the status of the political opposition which, under the Constitution, is a fundamental pillar and an indispensable component of our democracy, Macky SALL has pledged, since April 17, 2017, in an unprecedented public statement, to “reduce the Opposition to its simplest expression”! As the first guarantor of political freedom according to this same Constitution, Macky SALL has become the greatest threat to democracy, political freedom and civil peace in Senegal.

Yet once a land of democratic breathing, nurtured by freedom of expression and political consensus, Senegal has been transformed into a true autocracy. State institutions and their means are used to persecute all discordant voices: the opposition parties, civil society, citizen movements, whistleblowers and the free press are systematically persecuted. To date, the country has more than one hundred political prisoners awaiting trial. They are all members of Pastef. For a long time, this repression was carried out without any condemnation, even in principle. The Senegalese people feel that they are being subjected to this historical violence under the passivity of many foreign partners.

That is why we welcome recent reports about human rights in Senegal, including.
– The U.S. Department of State’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Senegal
– The Mandates Special Procedures Letter of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.
– The report of the EU Election Monitoring Mission to Senegal from March 12 to April 9, 2022.
The reports above have noted and denounced the very serious violations of rights and freedoms, of human integrity and of the electoral process by the regime of Macky SALL. We encourage this posture which is the one objectively expected from the international community, consecrating the primacy of universal values and principles over individual or group interests.
We know that the regime of President Macky SALL maintains an active propaganda with diplomatic representations and international organizations against his opposition.
This campaign is even planned and maintained by international media and lobbying firms paid with taxpayers’ money.
The main objective of this propaganda is not only to isolate our political party and its leader through demonization and stigmatization, but also to scare people by surfing on the sub-regional and international context. To this end, they deploy mainly two arguments:
– Wrongly assimilate the PASTEF party to a terrorist party.
– Wrongly assimilate the PASTEF party to an anti-Western party.
We are well aware that all autocratic regimes wrap themselves in the cloak of the fight against terrorism or exploit the tense international context, especially between the West and Russia (on the military level) and China (on the economic level), to blackmail their partners or present themselves as the only solution in their country.
They take advantage of the context to demand from certain States their support, arms and training of repressive forces to repress, if necessary, in blood, any popular aspiration to democracy, freedom, independent justice, respect for the Constitution and the number of terms of office (two terms in Senegal), transparency in the management of public affairs, good management of natural resources, accountability.
A part of these partners, some in good faith and others for various considerations, succumb to this deception which, however, does not resist any factual or discursive analysis of the evolution of our party.
We are a modern political party integrating international practices and standards of good associative governance, rejecting occult practices.
PASTEF/LES PATRIOTES is based on:
– a modern and agile leadership;
– internal democracy
– transparent practices (two-way communication with the base)
– a clear and responsible discourse;
– a clear vision of economic sovereignty and openness to the world;
– an innovative program designed by the party’s executives;
– an innovative and participatory financing in all transparency;
– an inclusive approach that takes into account all social strata of the society;
– a dynamic and evolutionary integration;
– a fair cooperation through a win-win partnership.

This is how PASTEF/LES PATRIOTES seduces millions of Senegalese, all categories included. The political rise of our party, in a country like Senegal where the People have a strong political and democratic culture, is not down to chance, but the result of a rigorous and unabashed commitment to the issues of the day. This is the why:
– Accusing PASTEF of being a terrorist and undemocratic party is an allegation of a sociologically and politically minimized regime that now relies solely on disinformation, manipulation, instrumentalization of justice and state violence to repress populations that no longer want it to rule their country.
– Accusing PASTEF of being a violent party is to attack the intelligence of millions of Senegalese from all socio-professional categories, from all religions and ethnicities; it is also to disrespect millions of men and women here and in the Diaspora who have freely and knowingly chosen this political project as the path to structural change in a country that has been held hostage by bad governance for years.
– Accusing PASTEF of being an anarchist party is also to insult and disrespect the many national, foreign and international partners who exchange, work and share with our formation around the plural issues of the moment and of Africa.
To the observers of the Senegalese political life, I would like to say that:
– PASTEF is a party of its time, open to the world, but deeply attached to the fundamental cultural values which constitute the cement of the Senegalese national unity.
– PASTEF is a party whose presidential candidate is committed to political, economic and diplomatic cooperation with all of Senegal’s partners in a way that benefits all parties and respects the fundamental principles of the law of international relations, particularly that of the sovereign equality of States.
– PASTEF is a party whose only concern is the development of Senegal and the safeguarding of our dignity through endogenous measures focused on a sustainable, equitable, sincere, mutually beneficial cooperation.
With less than from a crucial presidential election, Senegal is at a crossroads, so much so that the uncertainty and the climate of tension make us fear the worst.
The responsible for this situation is none other than President Macky SALL, who obviously wants to plunge the country into chaos:
– He exercises police and judicial violence against his opponents in a way that has never been seen before in Senegal.
– He maintains a system of corruption, impunity against acts of bad governance, embezzlement of public funds and abuses committed by his closest collaborators.
– It maintains a vicious and dangerous discourse for national stability based on religion and ethnicity.
– He maintains private rioters and militias that operate alongside the defense and security forces with impunity.
Senegal’s partners must refrain from supporting the destructive project of President Macky Sall, whose main motivation is the fear of the aftermath of his calamitous, clan-based, and violent management, which is marked by corruption, embezzlement and unpunished crimes.
The Senegalese people, who have given much to humanity and still have much to give, have already turned the page on Macky SALL.

Ousmane SONKO
President of the PASTEF-Les Patriotes political party
Candidate to the 2024 presidential election in Senegal