The former first lady of Côte d’Ivoire, Simone Gbagbo, 73, is now at the head of a political party, following her election as president of the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC), this Saturday during an extraordinary general meeting of the party.
This meeting which began yesterday first recorded the transformation of the MGC, created in September 2021 by Simone Gbagbo, from the association into a political party. “We are there, our political party is now in place”, she welcomed in her speech at the end of the Assembly, specifying that the political formation has as its motto “Audacity, solidarity, sovereignty”.
The birth of the MGC as a political party comes as local elections are scheduled for 2023 and the presidential one in 2025.
There is no doubt that the former first lady, nicknamed “the Iron Lady”, therefore wants to embark on a new battle, after that waged for years alongside ex-president Laurent Gbagbo with whom she is in the process of divorce.
Simone and Laurent Gbagbo had had problems with the Ivorian justice after the post-election crisis of 2010-2011 which left 3,000 dead. The former first lady was sentenced in 2015 to 20 years in prison for “undermining state security”, but she had benefited in 2018 from an amnesty law, in the name of “national reconciliation” advocated by President Alassane Ouattara.
For his part, Laurent Gbagbo, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, decided by the justice of his country, for the “robbery” of the West African Central Bank, while he was in the hands of the International Criminal Court ( ICC), prosecuted for crimes against humanity. He was acquitted by the ICC in March 2021 and joined Ivory Coast three months later.
Barely returned to his country, he asked for a divorce from Simone. Laurent Gbagbo has also created, in the meantime, his political party called the African Peoples’ Party-Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI).
While the former head of state was never arrested by the Ivorian courts after his return to Abidjan, President Alassane Ouattara granted him, at the beginning of this month, his pardon “in order to strengthen cohesion social”. But Laurent Gbagbo and his political formation judged this presidential pardon insufficient because it does not erase the sentence and will thus not allow him to stand for the next presidential election.
By OMA Newsletter N° 829 of 08/20/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
