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Laurent Gbagbo, a trade unionist who was active in the 1970s and whose teachings were considered to be "subversive", was imprisoned with his wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo in Séguéla and Bouaké from March 1971 to January 1973 by Houphouët. After his release, he worked as a researcher at the Institute of African History, Art, and Archeology at the University of Abidjan, and became the director in 1980.

Laurent Gbagbo made himself known at the time of the student demonstrations of February 9, 1982, which led to the closing of universities and large schools. He was one of the principal instigators of these demonstrations. It was during this year that he secretly founded the Ivorian Popular Front (known as the FPI by its French initials) with Simone Gbagbo. His exile in France gave him the chance to promote the FPI and its program of government. Although the FPI was ideologically near to the Socialist Party and Guy Labertit, the French socialist government tried to "ignore" it in order to spare Houphouët.[1] Only three years later, Gbagbo obtained political refuge in France thanks to an appeal[1]. However, the government subjected him to pressure to return to his country, as Houphouët worried that Gbagbo would develop a network of contacts, and thought that Gbagbo's stirring of opposition would be less of a threat in Abidjan than in Paris[2].

In 1988, he returned to Côte d'Ivoire, Houphouët having implicitly granted his forgiveness by declaring that "the tree is not angry at the bird"[3]. On October 28, 1990, the presidential election took place, and for the first time featured a candidate other than Houphouët: Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo won 18.3% of the vote, which made him the statutory leader of the opposition. In the legislative elections on November 25, the FPI won 9 of 175 seats; Gbagbo himself was elected in the district of Ouaragahio, where Gbagbo's home town is located[4].

In May 1991 and February 1992, two important student demonstrations took place. On February 18 (while Alassane Ouattara was the Prime Minister), Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison[5], but was released in August.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b « L'amour déçu de Laurent Gbagbo », Vincent Hugeux, L’Express, October 24, 2002.
  2. ^ [Fantômes d'Ivoire, Philippe Duval, éd. du Rocher, 2003]
  3. ^PDF Biographie de Laurent Gbagbo sur un.cti.depaul.edu
  4. ^ | Chronologie de la Côte d'Ivoire
  5. ^ L'opposition réduite au silence, sur le site d'Amnesty International