Senegal’s PASTEF party, which holds a legislative majority, has rejected a 2026 revised budget bill in a parliamentary committee, as the country struggles to tackle a heavy public debt.
The move signals the measure’s potential failure when it comes before the West African country’s full National Assembly on Tuesday.
Rejection of a budget measure would call into question the government’s ability to address Senegal’s public-sector debt, which was estimated at 132% of GDP at the end of 2024.
PASTEF’s leader Ousmane Sonko, who is engaged in a political feud with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, already said on Monday his party would not accept the 2026 revised finance bill, nor a 2027 draft budget.
Budgetary trade-offs
He additionally denounced the mechanism Senegal plans to use to address its debt, an “enhanced version” of what is known as the “G20 Common Framework.”
Senegal said it would use the framework following an announcement last month by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that a preliminary agreement had been reached on a new 36-month, $2.2-billion debt programme aimed at stabilising the country’s public finances.
After what it said were two days of deliberations in parliament’s Finance and Budgetary Control Committee, PASTEF said late on Friday that it had “decided not to approve the 2026 Supplementary Finance Bill (PLFR) in its current form.” The party controls 130 of Parliament’s 165 seats.
PASTEF said in the statement it was not rejecting “the necessity of revising the budget”, but had “disagreements regarding specific budgetary trade-offs, chosen financing methods and insufficient guarantees provided to parliament.”
Dialogue
Sonko is Senegal’s former prime minister but was sacked by the president in May. The two are erstwhile allies, whose relationship soured in part over how to tackle Senegal’s debt.
PASTEF said in its Friday statement that it was willing “to engage with the executive branch” on the bill’s conditions.
It demanded the re-examination of cuts affecting social spending, including on healthcare, education, training, water infrastructure, and other projects.
And it called for the protection of household purchasing power and a sustainable reduction in energy costs, among multiple other demands.
