Simone Gbagbo, a former first lady in Ivory Coast who was once wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, is running for president on Saturday, marking a new chapter in her political career without her ex-husband.
The 76-year-old politician, known in the West African nation as the “Iron Lady”, is the most high-profile name among those who were allowed to run against incumbent Alassane Ouattara, who is widely expected to win a fourth term.
Simone Gbagbo played a leading role during the tumultuous tenure of former President Laurent Gbagbo, which was marked by civil war from 2002 to 2007 and again after the 2010 election.
“All the ministers respect me, and I am often placed above them,” she once told the French newspaper L’Express.
FROM ARREST TO FOUNDING A NEW PARTY
Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to acknowledge defeat to Ouattara in 2010 led to fighting that killed around 3,000 people and ended when the couple was arrested together at their Abidjan residence.
In 2021, Laurent Gbagbo filed for divorce, bringing to a close a partnership that stretched back to their days as young opposition activists. A year later, Simone Gbagbo launched her current party, the Movement of Skilled Generations, which she has described as rooted in social democratic principles.
Arthur Banga, a historian and political analyst, said he does not expect Simone Gbagbo to win this year because her new party has a limited voter base.
“But she is positioning herself for the future,” he told Reuters, noting that she could take advantage of the void left by Laurent Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, a former Credit Suisse CEO. Both their candidacies were rejected by the electoral commission.
“She will become the leader of the political opposition after these elections,” Banga said.
BACKGROUND IN OPPOSITION POLITICS
Simone Gbagbo started her political career as a trade unionist in the 1970s when she opposed the single-party rule of the country’s founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
In the 1980s, she co-founded the Ivorian Popular Front party alongside Laurent Gbagbo, whom she married in 1989, and other opposition figures. She entered national politics in 1995, winning a seat in the National Assembly during general elections dominated by then President Henri Konan Bedie’s Democratic Party.
Her husband went on to assume the presidency five years later.
After their arrest in 2011, Laurent Gbagbo was sent to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but Ouattara’s government refused to transfer Simone Gbagbo.
Instead she went on trial at home and in 2015 received a 20-year sentence for crimes against the state.
In 2018, Ouattara granted her an amnesty in a move widely seen as an effort to ease political tensions.
PLEDGE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
Simone Gbagbo’s platform features a national reconciliation plan that would involve both justice and reconciliation for past political violence.
Her party has said she would introduce a general amnesty law to release all political and military prisoners and facilitate the return of exiles.
Simone Gbagbo is also known for her call to achieve “true monetary autonomy” in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer, by replacing the euro-pegged CFA franc with another currency at the subregional level.
She has also said she would support countries from the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in West Africa, where military leaders have seized power in coups in recent years. Those countries – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – have an antagonistic relationship with Ouattara.
Earlier this month, Simone Gbagbo’s campaign gained backing from Charles Ble Goude, a close ally of her ex-husband who like Laurent Gbagbo was acquitted by the ICC in 2019.
“Simone Gbagbo has demonstrated that she is a committed politician and, above all, a pragmatic woman,” Banga said, adding that she seems poised to strengthen her popular legitimacy by running in this election, which is widely expected to be the last time Ouattara, 83, runs.
“Let’s not forget that 2030 will be different,” he said.
