“There are no more excuses. There are no more delays. There is no more refuge behind empty words or hushed backroom deals. A whole year has passed since that sincere, clear-sighted, almost prophetic appeal. Another year in the slow suffocation of a party that once gave life to an entire nation.” This despair is expressed by the mayor of Dakar-Plateau, Alioune Ndoye, a member of the Socialist Party.

The socialist activist asks himself: “And today, what remains? A party apparatus turned in on itself. A leadership walled up in unreal self-satisfaction. And a militant base humiliated, ignored, almost treated as a threat. It is no longer just silence. It is denial. It is no longer a crisis. It is a moral bankruptcy. For ultimately, what are we afraid of? The truth? The people? Or ourselves?”

Mr. Ndoye observes that "the Socialist Party is not dying from its electoral defeats. It is dying from its stubborn refusal to face itself. It is dying from this insidious confiscation of speech, from this morbid fear of debate, from this inability to hear that history never gives eternal credit to those who cease to serve it."

The mayor of Dakar-Plateau reminds his party colleagues: “We are not the heirs of a name. We are the custodians of a struggle. And this struggle demands courage. Not posturing. Not political maneuvering. Not exclusions disguised as discipline.”

But rather, "the courage to say that the Socialist Party has drifted away from the people. The courage to recognize that its structures have become opaque, rigid, sometimes unjust. The courage, above all, to understand that Senegalese youth will not wait for us forever while we debate our internal balances as if the country did not exist."

Because, the socialist activist believes, "while we hesitate, Senegal is moving forward without us. And sometimes it is moving forward against everything we have stood for. That is the naked truth."

For Alioune Ndoye, "refounding the Socialist Party is no longer a strategic option. It is a historical necessity. Refounding is not about adjusting. It is not about dressing up. It is not about redistributing roles in a play from which the audience has already left."

For him, “rebuilding means breaking away. Breaking away from the practices of another era. Breaking away from the confiscation of decisions. Breaking away from this culture of blind loyalty that stifles collective intelligence. Rebuilding means giving a voice back to activists. It means opening the doors wide to Senegalese society. It means rebuilding a project that speaks to workers, to women, to young people, to forgotten territories, to this diaspora that still hopes, but is beginning to doubt.”

And that is why "we are launching, right now, a clear, direct, fraternal appeal: activists of the Socialist Party, in our towns, in our villages, in our neighborhoods, organize yourselves and invite us. Write to us. Tell us where you are. Propose dates. Form welcoming committees, even modest, even informal ones. Where there are three activists standing up, there is already a starting point."

"In the coming days, we will embark on a national tour of rebuilding. A tour without unnecessary protocol. A tour of listening, truth and reconstruction. Each stage will be an open space: an uncompromising diagnosis of our situation, a direct collection of the expectations of activists and the public, and the co-creation of concrete proposals to rebuild our project," he informs.

To the Senegalese people, he said, “we will come to listen to you before we speak. We will come to debate without filters. We will come together to rebuild in order to resume our conquest and be present from the next territorial elections. Because reconquest cannot be decreed from the top down. It is built in the heart of the territories, in contact with realities, in the warmth of grassroots dialogue.”

He also clarified: "And let there be no mistake: those who call for this refounding are not rebels. They are the last guardians of the socialist spirit. For true betrayal lies not in criticism. It lies in indifference."

To his party colleagues, Alioune Ndoye reminds them: "History is watching us. It will not remember our caution, our calculations, or our silences. It will only remember one thing: did we have the courage to save what could be saved? Or did we choose, out of comfort or fear, to accompany its disappearance with dignity?"

For Mr. Ndoye, “the time for ambiguity is over. The time for choices has arrived. Either we rebuild, profoundly, sincerely, radically. Or we will disappear, slowly, irreversibly, shamefully.” And this time, he says, “no one will be able to say they didn’t know.”