Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo visits his former rival Henri Konan Bédié

Published on : 07/11/2021 – 09:47

The tone was for reconciliation, Saturday July 11 in Daoukro, in central Côte d’Ivoire, where former President Laurent Gbagbo, back in his country since mid-June, was warmly welcomed by one of his predecessors and former rival Henri Konan Bédié.

In front of several hundred activists and executives of their parties, the two former heads of state gave each other a frank hug before walking a few dozen meters hand in hand, waving to the crowd, and sitting side by side to attend at several shows and speeches, noted AFP journalists.

Laurent Gbagbo then took the floor, in a speech of about thirty minutes in which he pinned Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, reelected in 2020 for a controversial third term, during a presidential election boycotted by the opposition who judged this new mandate unconstitutional.

“We can decide that we have no Constitution and live like that. But if we have a Constitution, we have to fight to be on the side of the Constitution. Respect the texts!” he said.

“Can Laurent Gbagbo meet Henri Konan Bédié without it being politics? Let’s assume that we are playing politics!”, Laurent Gbagbo also declared from the podium, to heavy applause.

Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié have long been political rivals. At the time of the 2010 presidential election, Henri Konan Bédié gave his support to Alassane Ouattara, then rival of Laurent Gbagbo.

The latter was then prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity during the post-election violence of 2010-2011, born of his refusal to admit his defeat in the presidential election to Alassane Ouattara.

“Bédié-Gbagbo, united for a stronger opposition”

“He was the real order giver, as such he will have to be accountable,” Henri Konan Bédié said at the time in an interview with Jeune Afrique. But since then, Henri Konan Bédié’s Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) has become the main opposition formation in 2018.

Henri Konan Bédié visited Laurent Gbagbo at the end of July 2019 in Brussels, where the latter was on parole pending confirmation of his acquittal before the ICC.

Now free, Laurent Gbagbo returned to Côte d’Ivoire on June 17 and this is the first time he has met Henri Konan Bédié since his return. “A mark of reconciliation,” he said.

“Bédié-Gbagbo, united for a stronger opposition”: ten years later, the slogan is therefore unity, like the many t-shirts, loincloths and banners of the militants present in Daoukro.

And the prospect of an alliance between the PDCI and the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) led by Laurent Gbagbo cannot be ruled out in view of the next national elections. These two parties had already joined forces in many constituencies in the legislative elections last March.

“We can not exclude it. It is an alliance for the good of the Ivory Coast, not against someone”, assures AFP, Antoni Garou, the pro-Gbagbo deputy-mayor of Ouragahio , which encompasses the constituency of Laurent Gbagbo’s birthplace, Mama.

“All Ivorians must talk to each other,” he said, hoping that President Ouattara would soon receive Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié.

With AFP