N°15-07/08/2021 This is the title of an article published in the Journal Du Dimanche (JDD).
In a long series of confidences Macron gives his point of view on the situation in Africa and on the direction of the French policy for this continent. These confidences are part of his recent trips to Rwanda and South Africa. What is the general context of this trip and of these confidences? Without a doubt, it is a question of positioning French imperialism in the stiff competition between the major imperialist powers of the USA and China, but also of Russia and those more regional such as Turkey, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia... and who bitterly dispute with the former colonial powers, France and the United Kingdom, their African preserve. Even though the center of the clashes within imperialism has shifted to the Asia-Pacific zone, the fact remains that Africa, a continent rich in natural resources and young with a growing population, is the focus of attention. Capitalist monopolies rightly see it as an almost virgin continent with no significant capitalist development and therefore a potential source of profit.
Since the end of the last war France has worked to maintain its dominance in the process of decolonization by forcibly imposing regimes in its pay, not hesitating to assassinate or corrupt elected progressive leaders. The tangible result of what is called Françafrique is the regular looting and collapse of states, which opened the door to all the forces resulting from their dislocation. Today, France maintains at arm's length its neo-colonial advantage through permanent military presence and interventions. Thus the Bahkane operation on the borders of Mali engages a substantial number of France's military capabilities with more than 5,000 deployed men. Its attempts to involve the European Union in it sound like an admission of failure, as the European states do not find it advantageous to fight for French interests. A few hundred German troops and a few dozen Estonians reflect this European non-engagement. The situation is further complicated because the people do not easily accept this domination. Thus in Mali, the popular revolt ousted the local dictator Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Although the military took power, the popular movement imposed its presence in the process of transition to political changes and elections. However, the leadership of the transitional government is far from homogeneous and French interests are represented there. It was their recent ousting that sparked things off. Macron called the change in the transitional government a putsch, which obviously deprives France of the means of action.
No wonder then that his West African allies gathered this Sunday condemned the new leadership in Mali. And yet, these are the same heads of state who sponsored the succession by his son from dictator Driss Déby, killed during a clash with rebel groups in northern Chad and who found nothing to complain about as this succession preserved the interests of French imperialism.
In his interview Macron seeks to justify France's action and its legitimacy. By using the personal form more than necessary, he wants to indicate that he is the boss and that he decides, and not the Africans. But words are not enough, you have to have the means of your policy to continue to dominate an important part of the continent and France no longer has them. Thus, the question arises of disengagement from Operation Bahkane or of a more international reconfiguration. Macron, in this sense, does not hesitate to assert that without further engagement Africa will slide into chaos whose migratory consequences will be heavy to bear. Incidentally let us note here that his allusion to the weight of immigration comes at the right time for the presidential election; but more fundamentally it is a question of redefining France's action in a context where its weight is decreasing in the face of other imperialist countries’commitments.
These confidences are therefore nothing other than the admission of the downgrading of France as a leading power in the imperialist system.