TWO AFRICAN LEADERS IN CONFRONTATION WITH MACRON DURING FINANCE SUMMIT
On Friday 23 June 2023, an important international finance meeting took place in Paris, which largely passed unnoticed as the international media did not focus too much on it.
Emmanuel Macron— an investment banker before he became President of France— had organized the Global Financial Pact Summit, which was meant to mobilize countries across the world towards a new global finance system that can tackle the “twin challenges of economic development and climate change”.
The Global Financial Pact Summit was an opportunity for government leaders of Western countries to burnish their credentials as the “supermen” and “superwomen” of international morality, preaching about the need to “decarbonize the world” by discussing ways in which the ghastly Bretton Woods institutions—International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank—can “help” poor Global South countries with funding to tackle vulnerabilities said to be caused by the climate.
Emmanuel Macron is easily one of the most unpopular Presidents of France. His presidency has seen a series of civil disturbances, riots and protests on the streets of France both by the natives and the immigrants. He has proven to be incompetent in managing delicate relations with Francophone African nations, some of which are now rebelling against France’s decades-old La Francafrique policy and defecting to the side of the Russian Federation.
His quick Safari tour of four African countries in March 2023 to demonstrate that France still had “friends” on the continent began relatively well and then ended in a fiasco when he got into a heated argument with the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the middle of a press conference, as I elaborated in an article published five months ago :
His attempts to punish Mali, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic for hiring Wagner mercenaries by ending “donor aid” has only led to backlash. Mali and Burkina Faso kicked out the French Ambassadors in their countries and forced Macron to close all French military bases on their territories. Mali went a step further and banned all French government-funded NGOs and declared that French would no longer be official language.
Being an incredibly disliked man, both at home and overseas, can’t be easy for the French President. So, what could he do to build a positive image of himself and gain respite from all negative vibes emanating very pore in his body? Well, Macron decided to reinvent himself as an environmentalist hero deeply concerned about the “effect of the climate” on all poor nations of the world. He convened a summit of developing countries and co-opted fellow sanctimonious Western nations dying to prove that they care more about the health of the planet than anyone else.
Convinced of the moral excellence of his position on the need for “reforms” of the Bretton Woods institutions to “better serve indebted countries susceptible to climate change”, Macron went about the business of inviting countries from Africa, Latin America, Caribbean, Middle-East and Asia to his financial summit.
Of course, in so doing, he was careful not to invite the leaders of certain Francophone African countries, who have shown extreme hostility to him in particular and France in general.
Lots of Anglophone African state leaders were invited, none of which harboured any particular grievances against France. The leaders of Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya were a few examples of such invited countries. Also invited were leaders of the dwindling band of friendly Francophone African nations such as Gabon, Chad, Senegal, Togo and Republic of Congo (not to be confused with Democratic Republic of Congo).
At first, all seemed to be going quite well at the summit, which was graced with the presence of US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen. The heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank read out their boiler-plate speeches pledging to help the African continent by providing $100 billion dollars to “help the poor nations to tackle climate change”. They also spoke of countries “hit by climate disaster” being able to suspend debt repayments.
With an air of self-satisfaction, a smiling Macron announced a $2.5 billion clean energy agreement with Senegal. Zambia would have its $6.3 billion debt “restructured”. The Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said he was grateful for the debt “restructuring” deal.
The new President of the Nigerian Federation, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, gave some bland speech, which seemed well received.
Then, it came to the turn of the Kenyan President, William Ruto, who had exhorted African leaders to dump the US dollar in a pan-African meeting, some weeks earlier :
From the very beginning, the Kenyan leader spat fire. He denounced the current international financial architecture. He attacked the IMF and World Bank, saying that African countries did not have equal say in how it was run and demanded a brand new international institution where all countries have an equal say. He did not want the cosmetic reforms of the international financial system promised by the IMF director Kristalina Georgieva. He wanted a complete transformation of the financial system.
When Macron tried to intervene to pacify the Kenyan leader by repeating the usual clichés about European nations, World Bank and IMF helping the African continent by providing millions of dollars in donor packages. The Kenyan pointedly told the French President that he was not listening to African leaders.
“Nobody wants anything for free,” the Kenyan leader told Macron curtly and repeated his demand that a new financial institution be set up in parallel to the World Bank and IMF. He also said that all African countries agreed with his opinion about the need for a new international financial architecture and that China was very supportive.
SIDE BAR :
Kenyan President William Ruto is scheduled to fly to Beijing later in the year for top level talks with Xi Jingping. Nurturing growing economic and diplomatic relations with China is a huge priority for many African countries. That includes pro-western Anglophone nations such as Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, post-genocide Rwanda, etc.
Emmanuel Macron, other government leaders of Europe, and top officials of IMF and World Bank were clearly taken aback by the strident tone of the Kenyan leader as seen in the video provided by Today News Africa :
By the time, it came to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s turn to pile on, Macron seemed clearly exhausted and frustrated, and this showed clearly in the video footage recorded at the summit. Cyril Ramaphosa had flown directly to the summit in Paris after his peace mission in Eastern Europe :
He addressed Macron on behalf of the seven African countries that signed up to his Russia-Ukraine Peace Initiative—Egypt, Senegal, Comoros Islands, Zambia, Congo Republic, Uganda and South Africa.
Angry at how NATO countries had been dismissive of his peace mission, President Ramaphosa laid heavily into the European leaders present at the summit, while a clearly frustrated Macron and a dismayed Scholz watched.
The South African leader’s speech was not as good as that of the Kenyan President. The South African complained about Europe not taking Africa seriously. He spoke of Western nations “hoarding vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic”. He criticized the Big pharmaceutical companies of Europe and North America for their reluctance to grant African nations the licence to manufacture life-saving medications for themselves.
He said that African leaders were not beggars and shouldn’t be seen as such. Then, he contradicted himself by blasting the failure of European leaders to deliver on long-standing promises of $100 billion in annual “climate finance” by 2020.
I have no doubt in my mind that this cringeworthy line of attack from Cyril Ramaphosa must have puzzled the dim-witted Olaf Scholz. Imagine the Federal Chancellor of Germany trying to reconcile the statement that African leaders aren't beggars with another one demanding (i.e. begging in a harsh tone) that Europeans release money they had pledged to African countries—money that pledging European countries, such as Germany and France, had no intention of ever providing in full to African nations.
Watch the video of Ramaphosa’s speech at the summit:
THE END
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Great piece. I will only argue the bit on "Macron decided to reinvent himself as an environmentalist". In fact he has been a creature of the powerful French global corporations/environmental lobby even before he became president. The environmental scam from the start has been pushed globally by banks and corporations like Veolia and the like, covering electricity production, water supply, sewage systems, etc etc. Africa was big on the agenda. I remember how excited the CEOs/politicians were to have found a way to reinvent the Françafrique (i.e. aid given to African countries to spend on French contractors) in a greenwashed version. This was very much in evidence at and around the Paris climate summit COP 21 in 2015. Macron was the minister of economy of the dimwit president Hollande at the time and obviously deeply invested in all this.
I read about Ruto's speech at the time, but this was the first time seeing the video. Impressive. I'm going to have to find a copy and upload. Everyone should.