Emmanuel Macron threatens to withdraw the French military if Mali moves in the direction of radical Islamism. In an interview with JDD, the French head of state also confirms his connection to the transition process after what he has already described as an “unacceptable coup”. These remarks come when West African leaders meet to decide the thorny issue of their response to the second coup by the Malian military, led by Assimi Goïta.
Emmanuel Macron’s warning is clear: “I will not stand next to a country where there is no longer democratic legitimacy or transition,” he explains in the columns from the Sunday Journal. The French president claims “that he conveyed the message” to his counterparts in the region. A way to put pressure on them ahead of the ECOWAS summit scheduled for Sunday 30 May in the afternoon.
Another strong point in this interview, the threat that the Barkhane force would withdraw: “To Malian President Bah N’Daw, who was very careful about the seal between power and the jihadists, I said ‘radical Islamism in Mali soldiers there?’ Never in my life! “Today there is this temptation in Mali. But if it goes in that direction, I would withdraw.” These words by Emmanuel Macron refer especially to possible future allies of Assimi Goïta in the transition.
Foreign operations, the president’s guarded hunts
It is the commander of the armies that the French president speaks there and he continues a tradition that is well established in the country. Foreign military operations are the preserve of the head of state and his government and parliament have little or nothing to say. The only constitutional obligation since 2008 is for parliamentarians to be consulted if a period of intervention exceeds four months, and this consultation takes place only once. With regard to operations in Mali, Parliament has not been consulted since April 2013, when the mission was still called Serval.
This mode of operation is criticized by legislators: in 2018, the Senate proposed that external military operations be subject to a vote by Parliament every year. Rather, this provision is intended to shorten an operation that would have stopped from the point of view of parliamentarians, but it would also have the potential to prevent the executive from directly stopping a military engagement that is always considered strategic by deputies and senators.
Two weights, two measurements?
Regarding the criticism of the “double standard, two measures” between his firmness in Mali and his support for the junta in Chad, led by the son of Idriss Déby, Emmanuel Macron says: “I was very clear when I claimed that” a transition could not be a consequence.
► Read also: Mali: President of Transition Assimi Goïta at ECOWAS Summit in Accra
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