Populism meets reality in Senegal
Worse-than-expected public finances hamper the new government
A little over a year ago Senegalese voted in an election that almost did not happen. Macky Sall, the president at the time, had tried to postpone it, triggering a constitutional crisis. The landslide victory by Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the opposition candidate and an anti-corruption crusader who had been released from prison just two weeks earlier, was widely hailed as a triumph for democracy.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Young and broke”
From the April 19th 2025 edition
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