Ousmane Sonko warns opponents after re-election as Pastef leader in Senegal

Ousmane Sonko, president of Senegal’s National Assembly and former prime minister, was overwhelmingly re-elected as head of his party, Pastef, on Saturday. The political victory served as an immediate warning to his opponents amid the country’s ongoing political turbulence.

Delegates from national branches and the diaspora gathered in Diamniadio, near Dakar, for the party’s first congress. Since co-founding Pastef in 2014, Sonko has retained his position for another six-year term.

“I measure the weight of this responsibility because Pastef is not an ordinary party in the Senegalese landscape,” he said from the podium after his election.

“Revolutions can be hijacked, absorbed or emptied of their substance when they lack both a clear doctrine and an organisation capable of sustaining change over time. That is why this congress is historic, two years after our accession to the highest responsibilities,” he added.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye won the presidency in 2024 with Pastef’s backing, after Sonko was barred from the presidential race. Months of tension followed, culminating in Faye dismissing Sonko as prime minister on 22 May. Sonko was elected president of the National Assembly a few days later.

Addressing Pastef delegates, Sonko warned against attempts to “sabotage” the party’s political project. “No sabotage plan against this revolution will succeed because the people, standing alongside Pastef, will provide the necessary guarantees so that we can finally liberate our country,” he cautioned.

The Pastef leadership boycotted the government formed on Monday by President Faye, even though some Sonko allies were included on the new ministerial list. Pastef holds 130 of the 165 seats in the National Assembly and can at any time file a no‑confidence motion to bring down the government. President Faye, for his part, can form a new government after a censure and may dissolve the National Assembly from November 2026 onward.