Senegal’s National Assembly voted to bring back ousted Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and, you know, reinstate him as a member of parliament, then appoint him as the new speaker.  

This pretty decisive step shows up just days after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye suddenly dismissed Sonko and also dissolved the cabinet, which really marks a sharper escalation in what’s been turning into a bigger power struggle between the once allies.  

The whole election came after El Malick Ndiaye, the previous speaker and Sonko ally, resigned strategically on Sunday. That kind of cleared the way for Sonko to take over the legislature, where his Pastef party has a solid hold with 130 of 165 seats, so he’ll be able to directly contest the president’s authority from inside.

A Deepening Political Crisis

The rift between the two leaders kinda comes from a totally different angle on how to deal with Senegal’s tough public debt situation, which now sits around 132 percent of GDP.

After Sonko’s dismissal, Faye named Ahmadou Al Aminou, a senior economist and previously an official at the Central Bank of West African States, as the country’s new prime minister. The whole reshuffling also seems to show Faye’s main focus on getting back in touch with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a fresh aid program.

That earlier $1.8 billion IMF program, signed in 2023, was later paused after the current administration claimed that former President Macky Sall’s Government had been intentionally concealing parts of the national debt. Even so, Faye is leaning toward working hand in hand with international lenders to unwind the problem, while Sonko has been pushing for a more homegrown “sovereigntist” pathway, like a more internal fix.

Shifting Alliances and Opposition Backlash

The unraveling of the Faye-Sonko alliance is a dramatic kind of pivot in Senegalese politics, really, you can feel it. Faye, to a big extent, owes his present standing to Sonko, his erstwhile mentor, who was barred from seeking the presidency in the last election because of a defamation conviction. Together, they pushed their message, with the usual talk, to stamp out corruption and restart a shaky economy.

Even if Sonko managed to pull in loud and committed backing from Senegal’s youth before the 2024 poll, the constitution still gives Faye the executive authority to remove his head of government by straightforward decree. That part matters a lot.

Now, the whole political maneuver has triggered sharp pushback from rival groups. Aissata Tall Sall, the figure behind the largest opposition coalition, criticized Sonko’s fast setup as speaker, calling it an “institutional coup” and insisting it was powered by the ruling majority’s pressure, not just politics “as usual”.

Ousmane Sonko handover ceremony

This clip also captures the official handover of the prime minister’s office to Ahmadou Al Aminou Lô, giving clear visual context to the ongoing shift in leadership, right now and still unfolding.