30.07.2022, Paris.
France has practically lost influence on the countries of the African continent, French publicist and expert on Africa Antoine Glaser wrote in his article published in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps on July 28.
According to him, the French authorities have been in a state of “postcolonial blindness” for decades. However, Paris has long been unable to dictate its will to African countries, Glaser noted.
French military interventions in recent years have largely contributed to this, he stressed. Africans remember the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the luring of President Laurent Gbagbo from his bunker and Operation Barkhane against Islamist terrorists, under the cover of which the West actively “did business,” the expert said.
Furthermore, it’s surprising that French leaders have been blind to China’s growing influence in Africa for so long, Glaser added. And in recent years, India and Turkey have joined it, he noted.
Already France’s European partners are challenging its role as Africa’s representative at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Glaser said. Moreover, Germany displaced France from the pedestal of the largest European supplier to Africa in 2018, and Spain and Italy are not far behind, the expert explained.
“France’s exceptional period of quasi-monopoly in its former colonies is really a thing of the past,” he concluded.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
