Since his return to Côte d'Ivoire on June 17, the question has been in everyone's mind: will Laurent Gbagbo officially return to politics?

Monday, August 9, the former Ivorian president, founder of the Front populaire ivoirien (FPI) undermined by divisions, took a new step, proposing the creation of a new political party, according to a statement from the FPI published at the end. a meeting of its governing bodies.

Laurent Gbagbo denounced during this meeting "the behavior" of his former Prime Minister, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, president of the so-called "legal" FPI, with whom he "does not intend to engage in a legal battle" and "proposes therefore the creation of a new instrument of struggle in accordance with our ideology and our ambitions, ”the statement said.

The FPI, "our only instrument of political struggle is confiscated by Mr. Affi N'Guessan and despite the many initiatives to reason with it, it braces itself on its so-called 'legality'", added Laurent Gbagbo, according to the report. text.

Laurent Gbagbo, "took note of the will and the obstinacy of Mr. Affi N'Guessan to take the FPI hostage, thus trampling on the years of sacrifice of the militants of the party".

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Internal crisis at the FPI

"He asked the central committee (of the FPI) to authorize the establishment of a preparation committee for the constitutive congress" for the new party which could be held in October, adds the text.

The FPI, founded by Laurent Gbagbo in 1982, has been divided into two camps since the 2010-2011 crisis which left 3,000 dead, born of Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to recognize his presidential defeat against President Alassane Ouattara.

The camp of Pascal Affi N'Guessan, president of the so-called "legal" FPI recognized by the Ivorian judicial authorities, and that of the FPI "Gor" (Gbagbo or nothing) of the former president.

Several attempts at rapprochement between Laurent Gbagbo and Pascal Affi N'Guessan failed and last week, learning of the convening of the party's governing bodies by Laurent Gbagbo, the "legal" FPI had estimated in a statement that, "although a founding member of the "Laurent Gbagbo" party is not the incumbent president of the FPI ". 

The statement added that the "legal" FPI "will fight with all its might against the cult of personality and autocracy, the road to dictatorship." 

In April 2011, Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity after the violence linked to the presidential election of 2010. He was definitively acquitted last March and returned to Côte d'Ivoire. Ivory June 17th. 

Since his return, he has met many personalities, including his old rival President Alassane Ouattara, as well as the leader of the opposition and former President Henri Konan Bédié.

But there was no meeting with his former traveling companion Pascal Affi N'Guessan.

With AFP

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