00:00Okay, so how serious is this rift between the president and the prime minister?
00:04Are we looking at a potential breakup of the ruling alliance?
00:09Well, Jumana, many people are seeing this increased strain between these two leaders
00:14and saying there is a real risk to the economic and the political stability of the country,
00:19especially if you take a look at what we've seen over the past few months.
00:22Now, really, this boils down to what had initially started as some internal disputes
00:27behind closed doors about some of the policy things that were central to the past of parties centralized.
00:35And now it's really become what seemingly looks like a power struggle at the front.
00:40Now, we should remember that Faye and Sanko founded this party,
00:43and now it seemingly appears like they're competing for influence of the party
00:48with varying degrees and visions for the IMF negotiations that we've been following closely,
00:54also personnel within the party and within the presidency and the administration itself,
00:59and even the future of the party.
01:02So much so that a few months ago, we heard the prime minister actually threatening to take the party
01:07into opposition if the president doesn't align with his vision.
01:11So what we heard over the weekend from President Faye is that he says the party is on a trajectory
01:17that risks leading to its downfall if nothing is done,
01:21and really saying that once the confidence is broken, there will be a new prime minister.
01:27And potentially, many people are looking at this and seeing a continued rift between these two leaders
01:32and wondering what this means for the future of Senegal, what this means for 2029,
01:37and also what this means for the past if ruling party.
01:42Yeah, but at the same time, we were just covering all of those IMF discussions a couple of weeks ago,
01:50and that they had been quite fraught as of late.
01:53How is the political backdrop going to influence the potential evolution with the IMF around another package?
02:02It is having quite an influence on some of these disputes, Jumana, based on our own reporting.
02:07These two leaders reportedly have different visions for how to actually go about these IMF negotiations.
02:14We should remember that a lot of what is central to some of these disputes is that this new administration
02:21came in and came out and reported billions of dollars in hidden debt.
02:26And so that led to the suspension of this IMF program.
02:30And so the big question has been, when will we see a new IMF program with Senegal and with the
02:36fund?
02:37Well, we did hear from the president over the weekend, and he said that there is no break with the
02:41IMF.
02:42He said that they do want a new program, and they're continuing discussions with the fund,
02:47adding that they are seeing that growth increasing, fiscal deficit has declined,
02:52and that potentially this is showing that the country is well managed.
02:55The question, though, and even what we heard from the IMF just a few weeks ago
02:59when we spoke to the Africa director, is a lot of the continuing negotiations are in the hands of the
03:06country,
03:06and the country needs to make its own decisions on what the future looks like
03:11in terms of macroeconomic policy decisions.
03:13If we're seeing potentially ruptures within the political establishment itself,
03:19what does that mean for the future decisions about a negotiated program with the fund?
03:24So many investors paying close attention to what this looks like moving forward.
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