Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo officially launched on Sunday 17 October his new political formation, the Party of African Peoples - Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI), a “
pan-African left
”
movement
of
which he took the lead, with the 2025 presidential election in the crosshairs.
Read alsoIn Côte d'Ivoire, the impossible reconciliation
"
The name of President Laurent Gbabgo's new party is the African Peoples Party - Ivory Coast,
" said Sébastien Dano Djédjé, the president of the party's launching congress.
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, Laurent Gbagbo was, unsurprisingly, elected at the head of this new movement, by the acclamation of some 1,600 congress participants present in Abidjan.
Sunday noon, the logo of the PPA-CI - the fingers of both hands intertwined in a map of Africa - was formalized, symbolizing the pan-African aim of this new party.
Several political representatives from a dozen African countries were also present this weekend for the party's launching congress.
The FPI, founded in hiding in 1982, is now in the hands of its ex-Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, with whom Mr. Gbagbo, 76, is in political rupture.
Most of the FPI executives followed Mr. Gbagbo in this new adventure.
Absence of the former first lady
An absence was however noticed this weekend, that of Simone Gbabgo, ex-First Lady from whom Laurent Gbagbo recently filed for divorce.
Traveling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in recent weeks she has been multiplying the signals to trace her own political path.
Read also Laurent Gbagbo's return ten years after his fall puts Côte d'Ivoire under tension
With the PPA-CI, Laurent Gbagbo records his return to the forefront on the political scene, four months after his return to Côte d'Ivoire, after 10 years of absence, acquitted by international justice who tried him for crimes against the humanity in the bloody post-election crisis of 2010.
This new party could become one of the main opposition forces, along with the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) of ex-president Henri Konan Bédié.
On Saturday, the n ° 2 of the ruling party, Adama Bictogo, present at the platform of the PPA-CI congress, launched a message of appeasement.
"
This new party that will be born will strengthen democratic vitality
," he declared.
The next presidential election is scheduled for 2025, but the executive is considering introducing an age limit of 75 to run.
The head of state Alassane Ouattara and his predecessors Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié would then be prevented from competing.