Senegal's opposition supermajority sinks revised budget, IMF deal in peril

Senegal's opposition party Pastef torpedoed a revised version of the national budget on Tuesday, voting it down in parliament and throwing the country's finances into limbo. The rejection is a direct hit on Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Mohamed Lo and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Without the revised text, Senegal loses its best shot at sealing a fresh programme with the International Monetary Fund.

Pastef isn't a fringe force. The party, led by former presidential candidate Ousmane Sonko, holds 130 of parliament's 165 seats — a supermajority that makes its refusal fatal to the government's spending plans. Sonko himself serves as speaker of the National Assembly, giving him a powerful perch from which to block the president's agenda.

The two men are locked in a long-running feud, and Tuesday's vote is the latest front in it. Sonko has already been ousted as prime minister and re-elected to head his party, per France 24. Now he and his bloc have handed the government a defeat it can't easily route around.

The stakes are steep. Senegal's public-sector debt stood at an estimated 132 percent of GDP at the end of 2024, and the revised budget was the government's tool for getting a grip on it. Kill the budget, and you undercut the credibility Senegal needs to convince the IMF it's serious about reining in borrowing.

What happens next is the open question. The government can return with another version, try to peel off votes, or find itself governing without the spending authority it says it needs. Either way, the IMF programme now sits further out of reach than it did on Monday.