“The Iron Lady” takes a shot in the presidency of the Ivory Coast

The first coastal lady in the Ivory Coast has moved from hiding in a hideout in an attempt to avoid arrest to announce her limit that she will run for the presidency.

In an extraordinary return, the 76 -year -old, an amazingly controversial player, was amazed by excavating the October elections, and called on supporters to help “build a new nation”.

For years, GBAGBO worked alongside her ex -husband Laurent, and was considered the power behind his throne.

Now, with a criminal condemnation and divorce behind it, it takes the lead as a presidential candidate in itself.

GBAGBO was the first woman from Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011, and she was called “The Iron Lady” because of her reputation for durability.

While her supporters described her with pride as “Maman” (French for “Mom”), Gibagbo was afraid at the party she erected with her husband, the Idoric Popular Front (FPI).

“All the ministers respect me,” she told French magazine.

In gatherings, GBAGBO often detained her missionary Christian faith, as they launched vibrant and rhetoric speeches to support her husband.

GBAGBO Laurent met in 1973, at a time when two strong people in the trade union movement were in the Ivory Coast.

GBAGBO had degrees in history and linguistics, and as a teacher, he was a major member of various teachers’ unions.

The couple’s relationship with the conflict against the then President Felix Hofuet-Beni was also built.

Gbagbos protested against Autocrate Houphouët-Boigny, who has lasted for 33 years, called for multi-party democracy.

As a result of their activity, the husband was imprisoned several times.

“I participated in the political struggle against the previous regime alongside men,” Gibagbo recalls in an interview with Lux.

“I spent six months in prison, was beaten, harassed, and left for death. After all these trials, it makes sense not to tamper with me.”

In 1982 the husband participated in the founding of FPI. In the same year, Laurent fled to France after harassing the security forces in Hofuet Boeni and left Gibagbo to raise the daughters of the twin couples alone.

Six years later, Laurent returned and married the husband at an intimate ceremony, with less than 10 guests.

Soon GBAGBOS had an additional reason to celebrate. In 1990, Houphouët-Boigny recently wandered, allowing the first national elections in Ivory Coast since independence three decades ago.

Laurent decided to run for the presidency, his wife, a major figure in his campaign.

“Laurent Ghab, Simon, was uncompromising,” said a French newspaper, Le Monde.

In less tempting phrases, the Ivorian opposition newspaper Le Patriote wrote: “Laurent Gbagbo – expansion, warm, twisted … his wife, Simon Ehivet -gbagbo – mysterious, cold, and secret.”

In elections that were marred by allegations of wide-ranging forgery, Laurent lost the presidential race against Hofuet-Beni by a ground collapse.

However, he won a seat at the National Assembly and after five years, his wife also gained one.

GBAGBO carried her husband again when she was nominated for the presidency in 2000. This time, he won, after all other candidates were excluded by the military leaders who seized power.

However, in the past, the champion of democracy, the new president began to adopt Drakon measures to strangle the political opposition. He pushed his support for the concept of Ivoirité, or Ivorieness, soldiers in the north to take over the weapon and the country was divided into two parts.

It is believed that his wife had a great impact on the security forces, which the administration used to silence the voices of the opposition.

Moreover, the 2005 presidential elections were postponed six times, as Laurent said he needed control of the entire country before he was able to hold the elections, although he eventually agreed to it in 2010.

In a surprise result, he lost to Al -Issaan Wattara – the current head of Ivory Coast – but he refused to accept the result. This attempt to survive has caused another devastating civil war in which more than 3000 people died.

After voting, GBAGBO strongly defended her husband’s decision to stay, Oouttara dubbed “the leader of the thieves”.

She said in a letter to the supporters: “The time for discussions on the elections between GBAGBO and” the leader of the thieves has ended, “she said in a letter to supporters.

“Our president has been established firmly in power while working.”

Ultimately, as the forces supported by the French forces, in the presidential housing, advanced, the couple resorted to a hideout. They were arrested there, and they were transferred to a hotel in the city of Abidjan, the main city of Ivory Coast, and they are actually ending for five months.

In her trial five years later, Gbagbo described her detention at the hotel.

She told the court: “I myself arrived with the discovery of the buttocks, and I was exposed.

GBAGBO was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “an attempt to undermine state security”, which disturbs public order and regulating armed gangs during the civil war.

However, after only three years, President Wattara gave GBAGBO to pardon what he said it was a step to enhance reconciliation. For this reason, she was allowed to stand up next month, despite her condemnation.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) followed separate charges against GBAGBO in 2012, as well as the civil war, but was later dropped.

The International Criminal Court also went after Laurent – accusing him of crimes against humanity and spent seven years in reservation in The Hague.

The couple has long maintained their innocence, and they rejected all charges against them as political motives.

Ultimately, Laurent was acquitted by the International Criminal Court and returned to the Ivory Coast house in 2021.

But there will be no reunification of tear with his wife – days after landing on the Idori soil, the former president submitted a request for divorce, after he strengthened a relationship with the journalist Bamba Club.

Gibago responded to her husband – through her lawyer, accused Laureran “the blatant And adultery known “and” abandoning the marital home. “

Since then, the former first lady has been rebuilding her political base quietly and systematically, after the FPI break.

She established a new party, the left -wing movement of generations (MGC) and in its campaign in the elections next month, the “modern” and “boom” coast pledged.

Gbagbo’s nomination is not only political significance, but it is strongly strong in a country where women remain a great representative representative in the national leadership.

Only 30 % of Ivorian parliamentarians are women, and a few are raising great roles in the government.

GBAGBO’s reputation for activity and democracy was contaminated, but it is still considered one of the strongest competitors in Outtara in a survey next month.

It is a political fight with a strong speech, which appears to be ready to gain the support of her husband’s supporters, after preventing him from managing himself.

But in these elections, the lights will be firmly on Simon Gibagbo. And if she won the presidency, the “Iron Lady” will make history as the first president in Ivory Coast – another teacher in a four -year turbulent political profession.

Participated in additional reports by Nicholas Nigos in Abidjan