Emmanuel Macron receives Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, 78, candidate for a controversial third term in the presidential election on October 31 on Friday, September 4, said the Elysee.
The French president hailed in March “
the historic decision
” of Alassane Ouattara to give up running for a third term, believing that Côte d'Ivoire “led by
example
”.
The Ivorian president then announced that he wanted to "
transfer power to a young generation
".
Read also: Ivory Coast: stormy nomination for Ouattara
But in August, Alassane Ouattara decided to stand for re-election, after the sudden death of his Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, whom he had invested as a candidate for his party.
The announcement of his candidacy provoked demonstrations which degenerated into violence which left some fifteen dead.
The 2016 Constitution limits presidential terms to two.
But supporters of Mr. Ouattara say that the change of Constitution has reset the counter to zero, while his opponents deem this candidacy unconstitutional.
Since then, the French president has not commented on the turnaround of his Ivorian counterpart.
But its position in favor of a generational change in Côte d'Ivoire has not changed, the Elysee said Thursday.
Last week, the former rebel leader and ex-Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, declared candidate despite his exile in France, denounced in an open letter to Emmanuel Macron the "
deafening silence
" of France on the situation in Côte d'Ivoire .
The situation is tense in the country as the presidential election approaches, ten years after the post-electoral crisis which left 3,000 dead following President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to recognize Alassane Ouattara's victory.
France is very concerned about these disturbances in Côte d'Ivoire, one of its major partners in West Africa, according to a diplomatic source.
