« If France had provided my country’s President with the few weapons he requested in 2016 to equip the embryonic national army, Wagner would never have arrived in Central Africa.«
(Produced by Monsieur Erwan DAVOUX)
Geopolitics.fr : Mr. Prime Minister, how would you characterize the current political situation in the Central African Republic?
The political situation in the Central African Republic has gradually deteriorated since December 2020 and has reached a situation of a real crisis. To cut a long story short, my country has ceased to be a Republic and is sinking deeper and deeper into totalitarianism day after day.
It should be noted that in December 2020, the general elections were severely disrupted by a series of armed attacks perpetrated by a coalition of rebel forces under the command of former President François Bozizé. In particular, an assault attempt on the city of Bangui was repulsed. This situation had consequences that can be classified into two categories: security and diplomatic.
In terms of security, the Wagner Group's personnel were quickly increased by 4 times; those of the Rwandan special forces were also significantly increased, and presidential security was strongly tribalized., With a vast number of personnel. At the diplomatic level, the fear of a new cycle of instability has directed the spotlight exclusively on Bozizé and his fighters of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), with a logic of overprotection of the Touadéra regime.
From there, everything was tolerated to him: the forcing of the results of the 2020-2021 presidential election to declare victory in the first round; the ban on leaving the country of his main challenger and the request for his immunity to be lifted; the hunt for opposition leaders; the imprisonment of diaspora leaders; the ban on opposition rallies and the access of their leaders to public media; the arrest of a lawmaker without the mandatory prerequisite of lifting his immunity; the dismissal of the President of the Constitutional Court because its Institution has declared the law by opposing the modification or change of the constitution of March 30, 2016; the imposition on the Central Africans of a new Constitution that shatters the lock on the limitation of mandates, It enshrines the categorization of citizens and the ostracization of some of them, blocks access to the supreme judiciary for all of its political opponents, and guarantees him a lifetime presidency.
In short, we have slid into dictatorship at a very rapid pace, with the observation of complicit indifference on the part of the international community, which is solely concerned with a struggle for influence with Russia in my country.
Meanwhile, the Central African Republic is sinking deeper and deeper into extreme poverty every day.
Geopolitics.fr : As the Leader of the Opposition, do you have the freedom and the means necessary to assume this role?
A law was passed in 2020 that organized the functioning of political parties, defined the status of the opposition and its leader, and provided a budget for its functioning.. This Law had been strongly recommended by some donors in my country. Naturally, you can understand that the promulgation of such a law by Mr. Touadéra would have contradicted his logic of crushing all opposition in order to reign as an absolute monarch. Results of the races: it remained a dead letter.
That said, in my political party we have remained consistent and determined in our opposition to this regime since 2016.
Geopolitics.fr : You were a candidate in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Coming in first place in the first round in 2016, you were eventually defeated in the second round in a confusing and contested election. In 2020, you were supposed to face Monsieur Touadéra in the second round, but he was declared the winner in the first round. How did you experience it?
What I personally feel is not that important. On the other hand, what I feel the most bad about is what my country has become in the nearly 9 years since: a field of ruins, the last one on the planet, practically in every way. We are talking here about the daily life of millions of human beings who lack everything and to whom no prospects are offered. This situation could have been avoided if the truth of the ballot box had been respected. Everyone who imposed Touadéra on our country knew that he would never have the capacity to advance our country.. Everyone knew him; they had seen him at work for 5 years, when he was François Bozizé’s last Prime Minister. As his stay in the presidency had been characterized by much indecision, a total absence of authority and action, and an apparent lack of character, everyone speculated about these weaknesses in order to hope to take the upper hand over him and manage his power in his place. He did indeed «kiss them,» to use a popular expression. For almost 9 years, he has been racing to catch up on his life before power. He discovered that life could be beautiful, even very beautiful. Especially when everything is provided for free by the state. Unfortunately, the happier this gentleman is, the more unhappy his people are.
I had indeed done what was necessary to win the presidential election. My political party and I are highly organized and prepared to positively transform my country. I continue to work in this direction. We are in the logic of appealing to all the talents of this country, wherever they may be, including those in the current regime. Rebuilding what Touadéra destroys on a daily basis will be a titanic task, This will require the aggregation and combination of all energies.
Geopolitics.fr : Will you run for the next presidential election in 2025? How can the honesty of the vote be guaranteed?
The answer is to be found in the second part of your question. With the constitution that Faustin Archange Touadéra imposed on the Central Africans, with the composition and functioning of the Institutions responsible for organizing the elections, The sincerity of the vote will not be guaranteed at all. That is why all the leaders of the democratic opposition are unanimous in calling for the return to the Constitution of March 30, 2016 and the reform of the institutions responsible for elections. They have formally requested that a dialogue be organized with the government to address these issues, which are of paramount importance. The future and stability of the country depend on it.
What would be your priorities if you were elected? How to ensure long-term political stability? How to build trust for investors?
The program of my party’s candidate is currently being drafted, and until the preconditions set by the opposition have been met, it is premature to talk about priorities in the event of victory in the presidential election. That would lack consistency.
However, there is one subject that is close to my heart, and that is precisely how to soothe the hearts of my compatriots. I think that in this beautiful country that nature has endowed us with, We spend a lot of energy hating ourselves. I find that too many people strive to excel only in verbal violence, or even more. I find that the practice of politics tends to boil down to a competition of mutual hatred.
The economic problems of the CAR are numerous and require concrete solutions, to give every citizen reasons to get up every morning with the hope of a better life. But my country also needs breathing space. It needs to encourage more positive feelings there. It needs love. So yes, in any case, I will be a candidate to build more love among the Central Africans.
Geopolitics.fr : The Central African Republic was the first to see Wagner settle on its territory, and then subsequently fell into the Russian orbit. How can this be explained? Is there a strong anti-French or anti-French sentiment?
If France had provided my country’s President with the few weapons he requested in 2016 to equip the embryonic national army, Wagner would never have arrived in Central Africa. It was the French authorities who facilitated contact with Russia. We tend to forget that too often. If the armed groups present in my country had not attacked the city of Bangui in January 2021, the Wagner Group’s ranks would never have exceeded 500 men. Russia has only taken advantage of other people’s mistakes to infiltrate.
As for the anti-French sentiment, it does not exist in the CAR. Faustin Archange Touadéra and the Wagner group did try to instrumentalize youth in this way, but it did not work. Precisely because we opposition leaders have never had an anti-French discourse. And the Central African youth are much more sensitive to the slogans of the opposition leaders than to those of the power, which they perceive as the cause of their misfortunes.
That said, I note that the more the power in Bangui disseminates anti-French messages, the more the French authorities have eyes for Chimène for Faustin Archange Touadera and the more Russia gains ground in my country. What a paradox!
Geopolitics.fr: What should be the diplomatic priorities?
Further strengthening relations with neighboring countries; to devote more effort to subregional and regional integration, mainly in the fields of socio-economic infrastructure and trade; to make the most of our geographical position at the level of the African continent ; forge intelligent partnerships with all the countries and institutions that can provide their multifaceted support for a radical transformation of the Central African Republic, particularly in the areas of security, the efficiency of the public administration, economic development, and the improvement in quantity and quality of human resources (health and education).
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