The Dakar Speech

If I am speaking today in Dakar, it is not by chance. It is because this land is where La Francophonie once ceased to be the project of a few men and became the aspiration of millions of others.

On the soil of Léopold Sédar Senghor and Abdou Diouf, the French language learned to breathe alongside Wolof, to blend with the pulse of the drums, to carry the oaths of a lucid pan-Africanism. It is here, and nowhere else, that I wanted to open the path that will lead me to the Phnom Penh Summit.

Our Francophonie is not short of ideas. It is short of audacity. Eighty-eight nations share a language, yet our peoples rarely meet. Our economies barely speak to each other. Our imaginations rarely cross borders.

Asymmetry is not a fate, it is a collective choice we have too long accepted by default. The time has come to undo it, project by project, measure by measure.

I do not come to Dakar empty-handed. I come with a programme, and that programme can be counted on the fingers of two hands: nine concrete projects, datable, accountable. Not intentions — levers.

Three projects to unite: intercultural gatherings, sister languages, the Francophone anthem. Three projects to produce: economic integration, the climate pact, traditional medicine. Three projects to protect: the Francophone visa, the Academy of peace, the inclusive digital transition.

To those who are listening to me today, I do not ask for enthusiasm — I ask for rigour. I do not ask for support — I ask for lucidity.

If you entrust me with this mission, I will assume it knowing that La Francophonie is not measured by speeches, but by acts. This is the oath I take here, in Dakar, before you, before Senghor and Diouf, before History.