After two days of work in the Finance Committee, the Pastef-Les patriotes parliamentary group is refusing to adopt the 2026 Draft Supplementary Budget Bill (Plfr) as it stands. Asserting that the National Assembly cannot be a mere rubber-stamp chamber, the majority is setting its conditions for the government ahead of the plenary vote.

While the parliamentary majority does not dispute the need to adjust the budget in the face of economic constraints, it denounces questionable trade-offs, debatable financing choices and a lack of institutional transparency.

To reach an agreement before the plenary, Pastef is putting five major demands to the Executive: protecting social spending and investment by re-examining the cuts in health, education and water supply and shifting the effort onto non-essential expenditure; protecting purchasing power by offsetting the reduction in energy subsidies with a cut in petroleum taxes and electricity production costs, with no increase for households; transparency on the Cerp project, by justifying the allocation and budgetary attribution of the 120 billion CFA francs arising from the agreements with the World Bank; reducing the State’s lifestyle by abolishing 19 parastatal entities to save at least 55 billion CFA francs over three years; and strict oversight of special funds, budgetary sincerity and clarity on debt, by justifying the 2026-2027 deficits and passing on the audit reports of the Igf and Forvis Mazars.

“Open to dialogue”, the Pastef group points out that the recovery of public finances must be carried out with transparency and sustainability, without sacrificing the purchasing power of Senegalese people or investment in the future.