Ivory Coast: in Mama, Laurent Gbagbo draws the axes of his position in the political game
Laurent Gbagbo speaks to traditional leaders and members of his party in his village of Mama on June 28, 2021. AFP - SIA KAMBOU
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Laurent Gbagbo returned to Abidjan on Tuesday, June 29 after less than 48 hours spent in his native region in the west of the country.
Before his departure from his village of Mama, he took part in a morning traditional “purification” ceremony during which traditional leaders symbolically washed him of his former condition as a prisoner, marking his return to the community.
But this move to Mama also marked a new stage in her resettlement in the Ivorian political game.
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Laurent Gbagbo based his public speeches on several axes.
First angle of attack: against the legitimacy of the current power.
On France 24, Laurent Gbagbo persists: he won in 2010, but he was "
released
", he said, because "
too embarrassing
", for the benefit of Alassane Ouattara.
The two men have not spoken to each other for more than ten years and the ex-president does not seem to listen to his successor's calls to keep a low profile.
When he returned to Mama,
he denounced the ICC, "
not serious
",
and seemed to downplay the scale of past crises, "
our little quarrels
" according to him.
Laurent Gbagbo always plays the card of the common man: “
I did not inherit a political position.
Since I was little, I had to fight.
When I speak of the people, it is not an empty word.
"
► To read
also: Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo again among his family in his native village of Mama
He puts on the clothes of a resolute opponent, supports the alliance with the PDCI, prepares an upcoming visit to his former opponent Henri Konan Bedié.
As for 2025, he says it again: “
I am not excluding anything.
I am in politics and then after I am a soldier.
I am at attention.
"
But Laurent Gbagbo must already get his party, the FPI, back in working order, manage the damage caused by his
divorce
petition from
Simone Ehivet
.
This is probably also why he asked Mama's dignitaries to thank his "
little wife
", Nady Bamba, for her dedication during her years of imprisonment.
►
To read also: Laurent Gbagbo on the subject of the ICC: "It was necessary to remove an embarrassing man"
Today, the PDCI and the FPI, it is a rapprochement that can lead to an alliance.
I cannot predict, but today we are on good terms.
Maurice Kakou Guikahué, executive secretary of the PDCI
François Hume-Ferkatadji
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Ivory Coast
Laurent Gbagbo
On the same subject
Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo again among his family in his native village of Mama
Laurent Gbagbo on the ICC: "We had to dismiss an embarrassing man"