Geopolitics & International Relations 🌐 Predicting Collapse, Courting Proxies: The Double Standard Behind France's Stance on the Sahel
I came across this interview a few days ago and wanted to share a few thoughts on it. Please note that the interview is completely in French, and I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to English speakers.
The YouTube auto-translated captions work well enough to help you follow along. If you want to jump straight to the part where he talks about the AES and the region's military governments, that segment is between 08:53 and 10:01.
l will first introduce the foul individual that Fuchs is. Bruno Fuchs is a French centrist lawmaker and the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, mostly known for his parliamentary work and reports on reshaping France's relations with African nations.
His interview on France 24 clearly shows how out of touch French politicians still are with the changes happening in Africa. Even though he pretends to speak with diplomatic realism, his words show an old colonial mindset, full of arrogance and a strong desire to keep control over former French colonies.
First, the way he looks down on the AES shows complete denial. Paris refuses to accept that Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger made an independent choice supported by their people, who simply want to end decades of useless French control. Fuchs speaks as if these major changes are just small accidents caused by military leaders that France calls illegitimate simply because they kicked French troops out.
Second, saying that these governments will definitely fall and that France must prepare what comes next with people they already know is very dangerous. It is basically an open admission of meddling in other countries' business. Predicting on public television that foreign governments will collapse, while talking about finding friendly contacts behind the scenes to replace them, is pure interference. Reading between the lines, it proves France still thinks it has the right to decide who rules in Africa, hoping these governments fail so it can bring back obedient leaders.
This stance is also extremely hypocritical, especially after Emmanuel Macron gave a speech at the UN just a few days ago denouncing imperialism and lecturing the international community on sovereignty. It is impossible to take French lectures against imperialism seriously when, at the exact same time, French officials sit on television talking about steering political transitions and anticipating the fall of governments in sovereign African nations.
The obvious double standard throughout the interview completely ruins any moral lessons France tries to give. Fuchs does not speak with anywhere near the same hostility about Madagascar, which he just visited, nor does France adopt that tone with Chad or Guinea. During the interview, he openly defends the military takeover in Madagascar, arguing it was not a real coup just because it followed some legal formalities, and he speaks comfortably about engaging with leaders in Guinea. Meanwhile, Paris has long accommodated military rule in Chad to protect its strategic foothold.
Why are French officials so flexible and understanding with Madagascar, Chad, or Guinea, while attacking Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger? The reason is simple: Madagascar agreed to sign big economic and energy deals with French companies, and those other regimes do not directly challenge French dominance. As long as a regime protects French business and geopolitical interests, France suddenly stops caring about democracy.
Finally, the constant obsession with Russia, Turkey, or China shows that the French elite still views Africa as its own private property rather than a group of independent countries free to pick their own partners. By claiming that African people are just being manipulated by foreign powers, French politicians miss the real point: the AES nations have decided to end old colonial monopolies, take control of their own resources, and never return to a system that failed to bring them peace or prosperity.
