Benin President Patrice Talon said that democracy can lead to anarchy and paralyze government decisions, and that he doesn’t intend to fully implement it.

The country’s economy and history make it impossible to emulate Western democracies, Talon said at a business event in Paris.

He argued that authoritarian measures are necessary in his country and defended a decision to ban protests by health workers, police officers and firefighters and to limit the right to strike to 10 days a year for others.  

“It is true that it is a rollback in terms of democratic achievements but you know I don’t have the ambition to have a democratic expression identical to France,” he said, adding that freedoms in Western countries tend to “flirt with anarchy.” 

Talon cited the sometimes violent Yellow Vests protests that shook France three years ago as an example of “aggressive demands” through which individuals can contest the right of an elected leader to act on his own. 

The comments drew applause by an audience of mostly executives and other senior business leaders.

Benin was heralded as a regional example of smooth transitions through open ballots after multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 90s. But democratic freedoms have deteriorated under Talon, who was re-elected last year in a vote that excluded the main opposition. 

Bloomberg