Ivory Coast: a Gbagbo-Bédié meeting with a view to an alliance between the FPI and the PDCI

Photomontage representing the two former Ivorian presidents Henri Konan Bedié (L) and Laurent Gbagbo (D).

SIA KAMBOU / AFP / Peter Dejong / REUTERS

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

Three weeks after his return to Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, will meet this Saturday, July 10, Henri Konan Bédié, in his residence in Daoukro.

The two Ivorian opposition leaders and former presidents of the Republic intend to give new impetus to the national reconciliation process, while their respective parties fought each other during the 2010-2011 crisis.

But more than a simple meeting of sympathy, this visit could lay the foundations for a consolidated alliance between the FPI and the PDCI, with a view to the next local elections, in 2023, and the presidential election in 2025.

Publicity

Read more

The two Elephants of Ivorian politics

met in Brussels in July 2019

, shortly after the acquittal of Laurent Gbagbo. But at the time, the FPI chairman was on parole, and was not allowed to speak publicly on national policy issues. Under these conditions, the meeting took place in relative discretion, reports our correspondent in Abidjan,

François Hume-Ferkatadji

.

This time, it is in Ivorian soil, in the native region of Henri Konan Bédié, under the lenses of photographers and cameras, that the two men, formerly adversaries, will meet with the stated aim of advancing the process of national reconciliation.

A two-day visit, first to Daoukro, where Laurent Gbagbo will be received by his host during a traditional “news exchange” ceremony, given in honor of the former detainee from The Hague.

Then to Bédiékro, the next day.

This is how the former camp of Henri Konan Bédié, a village located 25 km from Daoukro, was renamed.

In the middle of the rubber tree fields, the councilors of the FPI and the PDCI will devote themselves to a working session, in order to consolidate the collaboration agreement which binds the two parties.

A probable alliance

Because if the two men find themselves with emphasis under the banner of national reconciliation, it is above all a question of politics and a probable alliance in order to counter the hegemony of the presidential party, the RHDP, led by Alassane Ouattarra.

" 

It is a way for the opposition to march in a united row

 ", comments analyst Sylvain N'Guessan, " 

and to weigh a little more to have a say on the governance of Alassane Ouattara

", adds- he does.

The two parties, however ideologically opposed, intend eventually to bring down the current president, in a game of alliance which is now traditional in Ivorian political life.

"

 There is no unnatural rapprochement

 ," insists one at the PDCI, as at the FPI.

A merger started two years ago

For the faithful of Laurent Gbagbo, this meeting will be the occasion of " 

fraternal reunion between the two leaders

 " and a new stage of the " 

common project of national reconciliation

 " between the FPI and the PDCI.

But for Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), "

 reconciliation is an agreed rhetoric, the object is to constitute an anti-Ouattara front 

". 

The merger began two years ago, when on July 29, 2019,

Henri Konan Bedié visited Laurent Gbagbo

in Brussels.

Angry with Alassane Ouattara, refusing to see his party swallowed up by the new RHDP, Félix Houphouët-Boigny's successor turns to his former enemy.

►Also read: Laurent Gbagbo on the subject of the ICC: "We had to dismiss an embarrassing man"

On April 30, 2020, a “ 

framework collaboration agreement

 ” was concluded between the two formations, then Henri Konan Bédié, like the other opponents, boycotted the presidential election of October 31 to denounce the third presidential term.

In the process, the PDCI and the electoral platform of the FPI-pro Gbagbo, EDS, forge an alliance for the legislative elections of last March.

An alliance which made it possible to send more than 80 deputies to the Assembly.

A formula that could thus be renewed during the local elections of 2023

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Ivory Coast

• Ivory Coast Politics

• Henri Konan Bédié

• Laurent Gbagbo