Benin's President Patrice Talon gave an exclusive interview to the national press yesterday, Tuesday, November 4, 2025, in Cotonou. During the interview, the head of state addressed major national issues, including the rejection of the joint candidacy of the opposition party Les Démocrates for the 2026 presidential election.

The Electoral Code or the reform of the party system should not be indexed.

The leader hinted that he regretted the political party's non-participation in the upcoming presidential election.

For him, "the current state of the electoral process...is damaging Benin's image." However, he does not accept the accusatory finger-pointing at the reform of the party system, much less the Electoral Code, which is considered too restrictive by some in the political class, particularly the opposition.

"If the Democrats had signed a governance agreement with the FCBE...their candidate pairing would not have fallen."

For him, the provisions of this Code have set the bar high for everyone. The Democrats could have overcome their misfortune by collaborating, for example, with the Cauris Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE), believes Patrice Talon.

“Even as a moderate, FCBE is an opposition party. If the Democrats had signed a governance agreement with the FCBE (as authorized by the electoral code), a parliamentary agreement, the Democrats’ presidential duo would not have fallen, despite the defection of one of their own, because the FCBE has 6 or 7 endorsements,” the Beninese president believes.

“I became ‘President Boni Yayi’s whipping boy’”

Unfortunately, Boni Yayi and his party have chosen to "walk a tightrope, a razor's edge," the leader observes. They must therefore take responsibility and refrain from designating him as the "scapegoat" for their misfortune.

Indeed, according to President Talon, he has become "President Boni Yayi's whipping boy, the ideal scapegoat for everything that is wrong with the Democrats."