The “Iron Lady” taking a shot to the presidency of Côte d’Ivoire

The former First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, Simone Gbagbo, has gone to hide in a bunker to try to avoid the arrest of announcing with challenge that she will present himself to the presidency.

In an extraordinary return, the controversial 76 -year -old man was surprisingly authorized to challenge the October elections, calling on supporters to help “build a new nation”.

For years, Gbagbo has worked side by side with his ex-husband Laurent and was considered the power behind his throne.

Now, with a criminal conviction and a divorce behind her, she occupies the front of the stage as a candidate for the presidential election in his own right.

Gbagbo was the first lady of Côte d’Ivoire from 2000 to 2011 and was nicknamed “The Iron Lady” because of his reputation for tenacity.

While his supporters affectionately called him “Mom” (French for “Mom”), Gbagbo was feared in the party she installed with her husband, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).

“All the ministers respect me. And they often consider me above them,” she told French magazine L’Express during the presidency of her husband.

During gatherings, Gbagbo often invoked his evangelist Christian faith, drawing eloquent and eloquent speeches to support her husband.

Gbagbo met Laurent in 1973, at a time when the two were powerful characters in the union movement of Côte d’Ivoire.

Gbagbo had diplomas in history and linguistics, and as a teacher, was a key member of various educators’ unions.

The couple’s relationship was also built on the fight against the president of the time, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

The Gbagbos protested the autocracy of Houphouët-Boigny, which lasted 33 years, calling for multipartite democracy.

Following their activism, the couple was imprisoned several times.

“I got involved in a political struggle against the Old Regime alongside men,” said Gbagbo in his L’Express interview.

“I spent six months in prison, I was beaten, assaulted, left for dead. After all these trials, it is logical that people do not play with me.”

In 1982, the pair co -founded the FPI. The same year, Laurent fled to France following the harassment of the security forces of Houphouët-Boigny and Gbagbo was left to raise the couple’s twin girls.

After six years apart, Laurent returned and the couple got married during an intimate ceremony, with less than 10 guests present.

Gbagbos quickly had an additional cause of celebration. In 1990, Houphouët-Boigny finally ceded, allowing the first national elections of Côte d’Ivoire since independence three decades earlier.

Laurent decided to show up for the presidency, his wife a key figure in his campaign.

“Laurent had the GAB in a good mood, Simone the speech without compromise,” said the world, the French newspaper about the political partnership of the Gbagbos.

In less flattering terms, the newspaper of the Ivorian opposition The Patriot wrote: “Laurent Gbagbo – Extensive, Warm and Sneaky … His wife, Simone Ehivet -Gbagbo – enigmatic, cold and secret.”

During an election spoiled by allegations of generalized rigging, Laurent lost the presidential race against Houphouët-Boigny by a landslide.

However, he won a seat in the National Assembly and five years later, his wife also won one.

Gbagbo again campaigned for her husband when he presented himself to the presidency in 2000. This time, he won, after all the other opposition candidates were excluded by the military leaders who had taken power.

But, once champion of democracy, the new president began to adopt draconian measures to stifle political dissent. His support for the concept of ivoirity, or Ivoriness, pushed the soldiers of the North to take up arms and the country was divided in two.

It is believed that his wife had an enormous influence on the security forces, which were used by the administration to silence the votes of the opposition.

In addition, the presidential elections planned for 2005 have been postponed six times, with Laurent saying that he had to establish control of the whole country before being able to organize elections, although he finally accepted them in 2010.

In a surprise result, he lost against Alassane Ouattara – the current president of Côte d’Ivoire – but refused to accept the result. This attempt to stay in place sparked another devastating civil war in which more than 3,000 people died.

After the vote, Gbagbo fiercely defended her husband’s decision to stay, overcoming Ouattara a “bandit leader”.

“The time for debates on the elections between Gbagbo and the” Bandit leader “is over,” she said in an address to the supporters.

“Our president is firmly established in power and he works.”

Finally, while the pro-Sisttara forces supported by French troops progressed on the presidential residence, the couple took refuge in a bunker. They were arrested there and transported to a hotel in Abidjan, the main city of Côte d’Ivoire, ending the conflict at five months.

During his trial five years later, Gbagbo described his detention at the hotel.

“I myself arrived with my buttocks on display, my nudity exposed. I was subjected to several attempts at rape in broad daylight, all in the presence of French soldiers who were shooting,” she said in court.

Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years to “try to undermine state security”, disturbing public order and organizing armed gangs during the civil war.

However, three years later, President Ouattara granted Gbagbo an amnesty in what he said is a decision to promote reconciliation. This is why she was authorized to stand in the elections next month, despite her conviction.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) continued separate accusations against Gbagbo in 2012, also concerning the civil war, but they were then abandoned.

The ICC also continued Laurent – they accused him of crimes against humanity and he spent seven years in detention in The Hague.

The couple has long maintained their innocence, rejecting all the charges against them as politically motivated.

Laurent was finally acquitted by the ICC and returned home on Côte d’Ivoire in 2021.

But there would be no reunion with his wife – a few days after landing on Ivorian soil, the former president asked for divorce, having favored a relationship with journalist Nady Bamba.

Gbagbo retaliated to her husband – through her lawyer, she accused Laurent of “flagrant And well -known adultery “and” abandonment of the marital house “.

The former First Lady has since been quietly and methodically rebuilt her political base, after his break with the FPI.

She founded a new celebration, the left -wing movement of the capable generations (MGC) and in its campaign for the elections next month, the “modernized” and “prosperous” Ivory and “electricity.

Gbagbo’s candidacy is not only politically significant but symbolically powerful in a country where women remain largely underrepresented in national leadership.

Only 30% of Ivorian parliamentarians are women and few have held high -level positions in the government.

Gbagbo’s reputation for activism and democracy has been marred, but it is still considered one of the strongest challengers in Ouattara during the survey next month.

Political veteran with powerful rhetoric, she seems ready to gain the support of her husband’s supporters, after being excluded to present herself.

But in this election, the spotlights will be firmly on Simone Gbagbo. And if she wins the presidency, the “Iron Lady” would make history as the first president of Côte d’Ivoire – yet another important step in a turbulent political career of four decades.

Additional report by Nicolas Negoce in Abidjan