France’s secret manoeuvres in OIF election anger Kinshasa

The International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF) will elect its next secretary general on 15 and 16 November 2026 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The winner will lead the organisation for a four-year term.

It has recently come to light that France, under President Emmanuel Macron, is quietly preparing former Romanian prime minister Dacian Julien Ciolos to take over from Rwanda’s Louise Mushikiwabo at the helm of the OIF.

While Paris displays diplomatic smiles toward the candidate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Juliana Amato Lumumba—a former culture and arts minister—it is simultaneously working behind the scenes to promote Ciolos’s candidacy within its traditional sphere of influence in francophone Africa and beyond.

Some observers suggest that France, finding itself deeply embarrassed by the contest between Rwanda’s Mushikiwabo and the DRC’s Lumumba, is pushing a third candidate as a way out.

How can France legitimately compare the candidacy of the DRC with that of Rwanda, which has already completed two terms and whose commitment to the French language is questionable, given its ideological distance from French?

Objectively speaking, the DRC should never have been placed on the same footing as Rwanda—a country that has openly challenged the French language and already enjoyed two consecutive mandates.

Moreover, the DRC, with its 100 million French speakers, numerous francophone universities and media outlets, is the beating heart of la Francophonie.

If France fails to recognise these assets and instead continues to undermine the DRC—going so far as to block it from leading this cultural, political and civilisational space—then Kinshasa must draw all necessary conclusions and respond in kind.

Should Juliana Lumumba lose the election for secretary general of la Francophonie because of French duplicity, the DRC must take strong measures against France.

As the world’s largest French-speaking nation, the DRC is entitled to expect benevolent treatment from France.

With 90 member states, the OIF leadership is no mere protocol post. The secretary general wields significant, albeit subtle, influence over diplomatic balances among francophone countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas.

That is precisely why the position requires an experienced, unifying and highly motivated personality—qualities that Juliana Amato Lumumba fully embodies.