Aurélien Taché attributed the expression “African arrangement” to Emmanuel Macron during an interview with RFI, but it was not the French president who uttered these words.
It is an expression which, each time it is used, causes a lot of reaction. This Monday morning, the Nupes deputy from Val-d’Oise, Aurélien Taché, told RFI fear that democracy will not be respected during the next presidential election in Senegal, crossed by strong tensions since an opponent, candidate for this election, was sentenced to two years in prison. The French elected official called on Emmanuel Macron to position himself to affirm that France would not accept “African arrangement”.
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“The President of the French Republic must recall a strong position: France will not accept such violations of democratic principle if that happens. It could not recognize an electoral result resulting from these conditions. No arrangement at the ‘African, as Mr. Macron said in Congo a few months ago”, he said precisely. But did Emmanuel Macron really say that?
An expression by Jean-Yves Le Drian
No, the French president did not use these words, Aurélien Taché is the wrong person. The expression was indeed used during his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in March 2023 but not by him. The words were spoken by a journalist, during a press conference in the presence of Emmanuel Macron and the President of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi. She wanted to know if the French president had concerns for the respect of democracy during the next presidential election in the DRC next December.
To support her point, she used an expression already used four years ago, in February 2019, by Jean-Yves Le Drian when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. He commented on France Inter the election at the end of 2018 of the current president of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, as follows: “I pointed out that the results did not seem to correspond to all the information that one could have from the exit of the polls. (…) It was about an election in progress which ended finally by a kind of African-style compromise.”
The expression of a “paternalistic view” of France on Africa
The reminder of this expression made the President of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, react strongly, who was directly targeted by the words of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Felix Tshisekedi replied that “This is precisely what must change in our relations with France in particular, but Europe in general, the West. Your way of seeing things when they happen in Africa.”
👉 The entire diplomatic incident at #Congo : when President Félix #Tshisekedi hands a mirror to E. #Macron on the turpitudes of the West in terms of #democracy …
🎥 Through @bembelly pic.twitter.com/6bXpVXjly8— Chronik (@Chronikfr) March 5, 2023
“When there are irregularities in the American elections, we are not talking about ‘American compromise’. When in France several years ago now, there was a scandal over deceased voters who were made to vote, we were not talking about ‘French-style compromise’, he underlined. Look at us differently, by respecting us, by considering us as real partners, and not always with a paternalistic look, with the idea of always knowing what is necessary for us.”
Emmanuel Macron spoke in turn, assuring that this expression was not the official position of France and that he saw no contempt in it, without however succeeding in convincing his interlocutor.