Ivory Coast: Gbagbo proposes a new party and attacks his ex-Prime Minister

The divorce between the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and his former traveling companion Pascal Affi N'Guessan is consummated: Monday, August 9, Mr. Gbagbo proposed the creation of a new party, leaving the one he had founded to hands of its former Prime Minister.

Read also: Ouattara-Gbagbo meeting: "The theme of reconciliation is not new" in Côte d'Ivoire

This announcement, made at the end of a meeting in Abidjan of the central committee of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), founded in 1982 by Laurent Gbagbo, confirms a rupture dating back ten years and which appeared more and more openly between Gbagbo and Affi N'Guessan.

The FPI "is confiscated by Mr. Affi N'Guessan"

The former president, returned to Côte d'Ivoire on June 17 after being acquitted of crimes against humanity by international justice, had very harsh words against his former ally and friend.

Read also: The return of Laurent Gbagbo to Abidjan, between jubilation and resentment

The FPI, "

our only instrument of political struggle is confiscated by Mr. Affi N'Guessan and despite the many initiatives to reason with it, it braces itself on its so-called

"

legality

"", he declared, according to a press release from the FPI published after the meeting of its governing bodies. Laurent Gbagbo, "

took note of the will and the stubbornness of Mr. Affi N'Guessan to take the FPI hostage, thus trampling on the years of sacrifice of the party militants

". But he "

does not intend to engage in a legal battle

" with him and "

therefore proposes the creation of a new instrument of struggle in accordance with our ideology and our ambitions

".

A preparatory committee for the constituent congress for Laurent Gbagbo's new party must be set up for a congress which, according to a source at the FPI, should take place in October.

"

By wanting to create a new party other than the FPI, Laurent Gbagbo takes note of the historic transformation of political life in Côte d'Ivoire,

" political scientist Jean Alabro told AFP.

Two REITs since Ouattara's victory

The FPI has been divided into two camps since the 2010-2011 crisis which left 3,000 dead, born of Gbagbo's refusal to recognize his presidential defeat against Alassane Ouattara: the camp of Pascal Affi N'Guessan, president of the FPI says "

Legal

" recognized by the Ivorian judicial authorities, and that of the FPI "

Gor

" (Gbagbo or nothing) of the former president.

Read also: The return of Laurent Gbagbo ten years after his fall puts Côte d'Ivoire under tension

Several attempts at rapprochement between Gbagbo and Affi N'Guessan failed and last week, learning of the convening of the party's governing bodies by Laurent Gbagbo, the "

legal

"

FPI

had estimated in a statement that, "

although a founding member of the party

" , Laurent Gbagbo "

is not the current president of the FPI

".

The statement added that the "

legal

"

FPI "

will fight with all its might against the cult of personality and autocracy, the road to dictatorship

."

In April 2011, Laurent Gbagbo was arrested in Abidjan and then prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity after the violence linked to the presidential election of 2010. Definitively acquitted on March 31, he returned to Côte d ' Ivory June 17th. Since his return, he has met many personalities, including his old rival President Alassane Ouattara, on July 27 at the presidential palace in Abidjan.