Abstract
Ségolène Royal: "African politics is always caught in a contradiction. That is to say, either we reinforce the powers in place because we say to ourselves at least it is stability, we avoid ethnic wars or wars Either we push for democratization, we organize elections, which often lead to extremely violent conflicts. […] I believe that we must remain faithful to the principles of the discourse of La Baule, where we submitted the aid of France has new principles of democracy. […] There are three things in democracy: there are elections, there is the rule of law and there are human rights. Elections are always easy to organise. Only if there is not, and that takes much longer to put in place, the rule of law and the human rights that accompany it, at that point democracy switches to the tribal struggles. So perhaps instead of forming armies, we should train, for example, gendarmeries. Because that's what was lacking in Rwanda. I believe that it is an inter-ethnic, well-trained gendarmerie, which has learned what human rights are and what the rule of law is. But that is much slower than organizing elections. […] French aid must be subject to changes in the democratic process. This is what was done in Rwanda thanks to France, since there were the Arusha Accords in 1993 which made it possible for the minority of this country to participate in the government. So it was done, the pressure was put on by France! They did not succeed because the extremists on both sides refused this balance of power. Because the rule of law is always much slower to put in place. France must hold firm. And besides, it must also hold firm everywhere! And I think there have been some setbacks. Everyone knows that, on Rwanda, there was a very strong conflict within the Balladur government, between Mr. Juppé and Mr. Roussin who precisely wanted to go back on these principles put in place and on this conditioning of democracy on French aid . So let's be careful not to go back and have a good conception of human rights".
Comment
Ségolène Royal takes up here the geopolitical theory of dominoes dear to Hubert Védrine: it is necessary to avoid, whatever the price to be paid for the civilians, that the least country comes out of the purse of Françafrique. Moreover, while the genocide of the Tutsi is practically over, Madame Royal's use of the formula "extremists on both sides" is particularly shocking.