Senegal: “If Pastef wants it, this government can fall in 72 hours,” warns Sonko.

Ousmane Sonko, president of the National Assembly and head of Pastef, spoke on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, during a press briefing in which he termed the institutional situation resulting from the formation of Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo’s government without Pastef as “cohabitation.” “Whether he wants it or not, we are in a situation of cohabitation. He has not a single deputy in the National Assembly. He does not have all the powers. He needs to come down from his pedestal and we need to talk,” he stated, referring to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

However, Sonko excluded any strategy of systematic obstruction. “We will not censure,” he stated, specifying that Pastef would “support” the new government while calling on the head of state for dialogue “to avoid plunging” the country back into crisis. These remarks came a day after the publication of decree n°2026-1130 setting up a 30-member government that does not include any official representative from Pastef, whose non-participation Sonko himself announced in a statement signed on June 1.

The term “cohabitation” is a strong political lexical choice. In Senegalese constitutional law, cohabitation is not formally provided for – the president has the right to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister. But arithmetically, the situation described by Sonko is real: Pastef holds 130 of the 165 seats in the National Assembly, representing 78.8% of the chamber. Faye cannot dissolve the Assembly before November 2026. The budget, bills, and any potential censure of the government all pass through a vote from this majority.

A posture of counter-power without formal rupture

Sonko’s declaration sketches an intermediate posture between frontal opposition and governmental solidarity. Pastef does not participate in the government, it has not approved it, but it will not topple it either – at least not in the immediate future. The word “support” is intentionally vague: it can mean voting for the texts submitted by the government or simply not blocking them. It does not mean actively supporting them.

The call for dialogue directed at Faye is twofold. On one hand, it offers a way out of the institutional crisis that avoids direct confrontation between the executive and the Assembly. On the other, it positions Sonko as a reasonable arbiter and Faye as responsible for the deadlock if dialogue does not take place. The phrase “come down from his pedestal” is the harshest in the statement: it directly targets the president’s positioning since the dismissal on May 22.

Pastef Congress in four days

These statements come four days before the first Pastef congress, scheduled for June 6 in Dakar. This congress is set to elect the party president – with Sonko expected to be the candidate – and establish the guidelines for the next six years. Jeune Afrique noted on Tuesday that the government without Pastef “marks the cohabitation between Diomaye and Sonko,” a formulation that Sonko has now adopted for himself. The fate of the five Pastef members who remained in the government despite the boycott – including Yankhoba Diémé, already excluded by his local section in Bignona – will also be on the implicit agenda of the congress.