“I agreed to be a candidate in the presidential election of October 2025 because I deeply believe that every Ivorian, whatever their condition, is capable, if they really want to, of transcending all kinds of challenges. tests to dream, to create, to build and to succeed,” declared Ms. Gbagbo, during the first convention of the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC), her political group, in Moossou, near Abidjan.
“I would like to make you a bold offer: that of building a totally transformed, modernized and prosperous Ivory Coast, in an Africa that is uninhibited, developed, equipped, essential, strong and respected by all,” she added.
Simone Gbagbo, 75, was the wife of President Laurent Gbagbo in power from 2000 to 2011, during which time she was nicknamed the “Iron Lady”.
She was arrested at the same time as her husband in April 2011, following a bloody post-election crisis between the Gbagbo camp and the Ouattara camp which left some 3,000 dead.
Their divorce, requested upon his return to Abidjan in June 2021 by Mr. Gbagbo after his acquittal by international justice, was officially pronounced in 2023.
Sentenced in 2015 in her country to 20 years in prison for “endangering state security”, Ms. Gbagbo benefited from an amnesty law in 2018, in the name of “national reconciliation”.
On Saturday, she notably affirmed that she wanted to “build a great Ivorian nation, reconciled, strong, full of justice and equity.”
The next presidential election is due to be held in October 2025 in Ivory Coast.
For the moment, in addition to Mrs. Gbagbo, three other candidates have been declared: former President Laurent Gbagbo, still ineligible for a sentence of 20 years in prison for facts linked to the 2010-2011 crisis, the former Prime Minister Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan and former Minister of Commerce Jean-Louis Billon.
President Alassane Ouattara has not yet indicated whether or not he intends to run for a fourth term.
