Three weeks after returning to Côte d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo will meet Henri Konan Bédié on Saturday 10 July at his home in Daoukro. The two Ivorian opposition leaders and former presidents of the republic intend to give new impetus to the national reconciliation process, while their respective parties fought against each other during the 2010-2011 crisis. But more than a simple meeting with sympathy, this visit could lay the groundwork for a consolidated alliance between the FPI and the PDCI, given the next local elections in 2023 and the presidential elections in 2025.
The two elephants in Ivorian politics met in Brussels in July 2019, shortly after the acquittal of Laurent Gbagbo. But at the time, the FPI chairman was on parole and was not allowed to speak publicly on national political issues. Under these circumstances, the meeting took place in relatively good judgment, reports our correspondent in Abidjan, François Hume-Ferkatadji.
This time it is in Ivorian soil, in the native region of Henri Konan Bédié, under the lens of photographers and cameras, that the two men, former opponents, will meet the stated goal of promoting the process of national reconciliation. A two-day visit, first to Daoukro, where Laurent Gbagbo will be received by his host during a traditional “news exchange ceremony”, owned by the former prison from The Hague. Then to Bédiékro the next day and thus change the name of the former camp for Henri Konan Bédié, a village 25 km from Daoukro. In the middle of the rubber tree fields, the FPI’s and PDCI’s councilors will devote themselves to a working session to consolidate the cooperation agreement that binds the two parties.
A true alliance
Because if the two men are with emphasis under the flag of national reconciliation, it is above all a matter of politics and a true alliance to counter the presidential hegemony, RHDP, led by Alassane Ouattarra. “It is a way for the opposition to march in unison,” comments analyst Sylvain N’Guessan, “and to weigh a little more to take part in the management of Alassane Ouattara,” he added.
The two parties, no matter how ideological they are, eventually intend to defeat the current president in an alliance game that is now traditional in Ivorian political life. “There is no unnatural approach,” insists one at PDCI, as at FPI.
A merger started two years ago
For the faithful Laurent Gbagbo, this meeting will be an opportunity for “fraternal reunion between the two leaders” and a new step in the “joint project for national reconciliation” between the FPI and the PDCI. But for Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), “reconciliation is an agreed-upon rhetoric; the goal is to form an anti-Ouattara front.”
The merger began two years ago, on July 29, 2019, Henri Konan Bedié visited Laurent Gbagbo Angry at Alassane Ouattara, refusing to see his party engulfed by the new RHDP, Félix Houphouët-Boigny’s successor turns to his former enemy.
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On April 30, 2020, a “framework agreement on cooperation” was concluded between the two formations, when Henri Konan Bédié, like the other opponents, boycotted the presidential election on October 31 to terminate the third presidential mandate. Election of FPI professionals Gbagbo, EDS, to form an alliance in view of the legislative elections in March last year. An alliance that has made it possible to send more than 80 deputies to the parish, a formula that can thus be renewed during the local elections in 2023
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