What did Nicolas Sarkozy do at Alpha Condé?

This Friday, the former French president was received by Alpha Condé. Nicolas Sarkozy regularly consults the Guinean head of state.

Alpha Condé assured him that Guinea is "a digest of a winning Africa". Nicolas Sarkozy was present in Conakry to meet the Guinean president. Arrived by private jet this Friday, at the end of the morning, the former French head of state ended up meeting the one who was already his counterpart when he was still at the Elysee Palace in the afternoon. A surprising visit to Conakry: Nicolas Sarkozy, when he was President of the French Republic, had never visited Guinea. But for several years, Conakry has become one of his favorite places.

The Guinean press wonders the reason for this visit. "For some time, he has been consulting the president regularly," assures a source close to the Foreign Ministry. Indeed, between February and May 2019, Nicolas Sarkozy visited Guinea no less than three times. For his first trip since 2019, the former tenant of the Elysee Palace was received at Conakry airport by the Minister in charge of Presidential Affairs and Minister of Defense, Mohamed Diané. The latter was accompanied by the French Ambassador to Guinea.

The day when "Sarko" reconciled Alpha Condé and Beny Steinmetz

If the agenda for Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Alpha Condé was not filtered, we know that, during his numerous trips at the beginning of 2019, the former French president had played the intermediary between Alpha Condé and Beny Steinmetz. Today worried by justice, the Franco-Israeli businessman had been in conflict with the Guinean president for ten years, over several iron deposit operations in the country.

Nicolas Sarkozy he again tried to play the facilitator between the diamond dealer and the Guinean head of state? Convicted last January of bribing public officials in Guinea in order to take control of the country's iron deposits, Beny Steinmetz was sentenced to five years in prison in Switzerland after an investigation that lasted six years. After the visits of Nicolas Sarkozy, Guinea had finally withdrawn its complaint against Steinmetz, but the justice decided to continue the investigation.

No doubt that if this file was raised, Nicolas Sarkozy also had to take advantage of his visit to talk about another file: the former French president negotiated a return of Accor to Guinea, while the hotel group is was withdrawn from the country in 2013. Business lawyer and administrator of several groups, and close to Qatar, Nicolas Sarkozy now plays lobbyists, taking advantage of the African network he forged when he was president of the Republic. For Alpha Condé, relatively isolated since his re-election, this meeting offers him a timely mini-communication campaign. The Guinean president did not hesitate to mention this audience on social networks.

#Hearing I received the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy… pic.twitter.com/nXSpVW0oQ5

- Alpha CONDÉ (@alphacondepresi) August 6