Laurent Gbagbo returned to Abidjan on Tuesday, June 29, after less than forty-eight hours in his home country in the western part of the country. Before leaving the village of Mama, the former president attended a traditional “purification” ceremony in the morning, during which the traditional leaders symbolically washed him from his former condition of prisoners, marking his return to society. But this move to her mother also marked a new stage in her resettlement in the Ivorian political game.
Laurent Gbagbo based his public speeches on several axes. First angle of attack: against the legitimacy of the current power. On France 24, Laurent Gbagbo continues: he won in 2010, but he was “released”, he said, for “too embarrassing”, in favor of Alassane Ouattara. The two men have not spoken to each other in more than ten years, and the former president does not seem to listen to his successors’ calls to keep a low profile.
When he returned to his mother, he condemned the International Criminal Court, “not serious”, and seemed to downplay the scale of previous crises, “our little quarrels,” he said.
Laurent Gbagbo always plays the card of the common man: “I did not inherit a political position. Since I was little I had to fight. When I talk about the people, it’s not an empty word. “
► To read also: Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo again among his family in his hometown Mama
He puts on the clothes of a resolute opponent, supports the alliance with the PDCI, prepares for an upcoming visit to his former opponent Henri Konan Bedié. As for 2025, he says it again: “I do not exclude anything. I’m in politics and then I’m a soldier. I’m paying attention. ”
But Laurent Gbagbo must already get his party, the FPI, back in working order, deal with the damage caused by his demands for divorce with Simone Ehivet. This is probably also why he asked his mother’s dignitaries to thank his “little wife”, Nady Bamba, for her commitment during her years in prison.
► To read also: Laurent Gbagbo on the subject ICC: “It was necessary to remove an embarrassing man”
Today, PDCI and FPI, it is an approach that can lead to an alliance. I can not predict, but today we are on good terms.
Maurice Kakou Guikahué, Executive Secretary of the PDCI
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