Betting on a new Africa-France summit

In international relations, more than any other field, the summit is not a policy. The next event between Africa and France, organized on Friday 8 October in Montpellier, is no exception to the rule. But he does offer some lessons on how Emmanuel Macron wants to revive France’s complex relations with the African continent. In official terms, this “new summit” thus signifies a change in the perceptions and patterns of the relationship between the two parties. With seven months to go before a French presidential election, there is no guarantee of its stability.

On Friday, more than a thousand young people from the African continent (including about 350 of them entrepreneurs) and about 3,000 participants are expected to attend meetings and roundtables between African, French and diaspora civil societies on economic, cultural and political subjects. . The novelty of the summit was based on the absence of African presidents for the first time since 1973, the first time during the “Franchise” crisis.

“Montpellier is a kind of inverted summit where those who are not usually invited to this kind of international event will be at the center of the event”, We explain in Elysee. about this “Listen to the Words of African Youth” And “Get out of obsolete formulas and networks” Praising the form, the president adds the post “Unpublished” Of that event “I will bring together key players in the relationship [entre l’Afrique et la France] In the next ten and twenty years “.

“Adverse effects”

So is Paul Pia, President of Cameroon since 1982. Nor Ali Bongo nominated Capone for president in 2009 over the death of his father, Omar. There will no longer be Neobutschists in Sadien military uniform, Malian or Guinean. Ivorian Alasen Owattara, at risk of breaking it, won the weakest democratic thread of his country by winning a third presidential regime that promised he would not run. This is only a brief, incomplete overview of democratic mistakes in Africa, where Paris still wants to play a role.

“France’s position on democratic issues is not negotiation between heads of state”, Elysee explains to justify this attention given to civil society. “This is not a summit of political oppositionWe mention, [mais] Citizens’ movements, bloggers, activists … “ Not everyone who does not have this attitude will be convinced. “We must be aware of the dire consequences. Promoting civil society in the name of poor governance in a certain number of countries will accelerate the representation of states. A Saheliya minister worries.

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