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Pressure from former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo to set up a new party suggests another presidential tilt in 2025, analysts say.
Gbagbo on Monday announced his plans for a new political vehicle, less than two months after ending a decade of absence from the political scene.
He spent a forced exile abroad, which began with humiliation when he was dragged to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity, and ended in triumph with his acquittal.
Unable to regain full control of the main opposition, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), which he founded, the 76-year-old veteran’s decision to make a fresh start with a new party indicates that his political dreams remain intact.
If he wants to run for president again, he needs a party of his own, commentators say.
“Love at first sight,” the independent daily Soirinfo reported on Tuesday, stressing that it was the first time that Gbagbo had spoken out on the divisions within the FPI since its creation 39 years ago.
The party broke up in 2015, while Gbagbo was still fighting for his cause in The Hague.
One is headed by Pascal Affi N’Guessan, 68, who was prime minister under Gbagbo.
The other side is the so-called “GOR” faction – French words meaning “Gbagbo or nothing” – backed by members of the base who fervently support the former president.
Jump ‘the pebble’
Unable to heal the divisions, Gbagbo instead chose to cut the Gordian knot, create a new party and leave Affi N’Guessan with what remains. A congress to found the new party could take place in October.
Map of Ivory Coast. By Laurence SAUBADU (AFP) “Let’s leave Affi with the envelope,” he said in Monday’s speech to the FPI central committee: he and his supporters would “take the content.”
“The FPI is us” from top to bottom of the party, he said. “We’re going to change our name, that’s all.”
He despised his former protege, to whom he offered the post of prime minister and party leadership when he won the presidency in 2000.
“When you go to one village or another, you hit a rock,” he said of his rival, using the popular language he prefers.
“(But) you don’t go out of your way to fight a stone, you jump it or go around it, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Affi N’Guessan for his part denounced what he described as “a decision dictated mainly by the thirst for power and the desire for revenge” during the next presidential election.
“Desire for revenge”
It was not an easy decision for Gbagbo, despite the lightness with which he announced it, explains Ivorian political scientist and writer Yves Ouya.
“The FPI is his other self, which has accompanied him throughout his political struggle, from the opposition to power.
Gbagbo and Ouattara both smiled at the cameras, but they may soon be engaged in another political battle. By Issouf SANOGO (AFP) Political analyst Rodrigue Kone said Gbagbo’s decision showed he was “taking a combative stance as the 2025 presidential elections approach.
“He needs a well-organized political apparatus of his own.
His fellow analyst Ouya agreed. Gbagbo, he said, “will try to take power in 2025, and he needs a vehicle that can give him every chance of doing so.”
It was Gbagbo’s refusal in 2010 to accept electoral defeat against the current president, Alassane Ouattara, which triggered the political violence which left 3,000 dead in a few months and led to his trial in The Hague.
Once Gbagbo was acquitted, Ouattara gave him the green light to return home.
When the two rivals met at the end of last month for the first time since the disputed election, they smiled at the cameras and insisted that past conflicts were behind them.
In a few years, however, they could find themselves facing yet another electoral battle.
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