In the spotlight: Gbagbo, the return ...
Audio 02:57
Laurent Gbagbo.
© Peter Dejon / AP
By: Frédéric Couteau Follow
6 mins
Publicity
"
After 10 years of absence, Gbagbo is back in his country today
": this is the headline of the daily
Notre Voie
, close to the FPI, the original party of the former president.
Thousands of people are expected at Houphouët-Boigny airport this afternoon.
It is the excitement among his supporters.
However, no headline for the government daily
Fraternité Matin
. You have to get to page 8 of the newspaper to have a comment on this return with this question: "
What will Laurent Gbagbo do once in the country?" The answer to this question is clear
, points out the newspaper.
According to some of his relatives, he will be in politics. That's the best he can do.
"But it remains to be seen in what form ... Will he play"
the reconcilers?
»Within his party, divided between his supporters, the GOR (Gbagbo or nothing), and the supporters of Pascal Affi N'Guessan?
What will also be his attitude towards Henri Konan Bédié, the president of the PDCI-RCA, who presents himself today as the leader of the opposition.
Will Laurent Gbagbo agree to be behind him?
And then "
Is Gbagbo back for reconciliation?"
Fraternité Matin
still wonders
.
Response from the newspaper: "
Let's hope so ...
"
GOR time?
In any case, for his possible return to politics, Laurent Gbagbo will be able to rely on his supporters, the famous GORs… The “
Gbagbo or nothing
” who number 17 in the National Assembly.
Jeune Afrique
wonders: "
Has the time for GOR come?"
"
Among these faithful, the eldest son of Laurent Gbagbo, Michel Gbagbo, newly elected deputy and that
Le Monde Afrique
has followed in recent days: “
A few hours before the return of the former president, Michel Gbagbo is active
, reports the newspaper.
He comes out of three days of meetings in the main districts of his constituency, Yopougon, the largest municipality in Abidjan and a stronghold of pro-Gbagbo.
"The idea was to prepare the activists psychologically, to confirm to them that he is coming back, to encourage them to move to the airport, he explains. There must be so many people that if we throws a bag of water in the air, it can't fall to the ground ".
Without giving in to violence.
In these popular meetings which Yopougon is fond of, the son took up the message hammered out for months,
again points out
Le Monde Afrique, according to which
"Gbagbo is the missing link of reconciliation".
"
Introspection ?
Precisely, affirms
Le Pays
, in neighboring Burkina, “
this return of Gbagbo should be a real opportunity for rapprochement between Ivorians who should all be animated by the same unwavering desire to definitively bury the hatchet, after the painful parenthesis that has affected the entire Nation and caused casualties on both sides. In the name of all these victims, in the name of the
3,000 dead whose responsibility remains inevitably shared, Ivorians should seize the opportunity of this return to the fold of Laurent Gbagbo, insists the Ouagalais daily, to make a real introspection in order to mark out the situation. way of the future, against the demons of division.
"
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Laurent Gbagbo
Ivory Coast