Benin – Creation of the Senate: Boni Yayi’s request to the 22 deputies of the Les Démocrates party

“Through the press I was informed of the filing in the National Assembly of a bill amending the Constitution. It aims to create an institution called the Senate.”, thus begins the statement of the former president of the Republic, Thomas Boni Yayi, published on the night of Monday, November 3, 2025.

For the former head of state, this initiative “does not contribute to strengthening our democracy”. He believes that, undertaken “without a national consensus,” it “fits into a climate of exclusion that undermines social cohesion and compromises the calm of the republican debate.”

In his statement Boni Yayi denounces an approach he considers untimely and illegitimate. “The creation of a Senate is neither timely nor legitimate. It constitutes an anti-democratic initiative, contrary to the fundamental principles of the separation of powers and to the proper functioning of our institutions.”, he said.

“Let’s reject any alteration of the institutional balance”

Continuing his statement, the honorary president of the party Les Démocrates questions the composition and function of the future institution, which he considers “designed to serve a single man, disregarding the public interest”.

“I could in no way be part of this institution as an ex officio member nor endorse such a project, whose true aim seems to be to change the very nature of our political system.”

For Boni Yayi, “such an institutional drift endangers the democratic gains dearly won by the Beninese people at the cost of so many sacrifices.” That is why he makes a solemn appeal to the remaining deputies of the party Les Démocrates, of which he is the president.