The former head of state and president of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) died on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. He was 89 years old. By dint of seeing him pass the years, we had almost finished thinking that he was immortal. According to several family sources, Henri Konan Bédié died this Tuesday, August 1 in the early evening, in Abidjan. Victim of a malaise in his fief of Daoukro, he had been transferred in emergency to the Polyclinique internationale Sainte-Anne-Marie of Abidjan (Sogemed-Pisam). It is a monument of Ivorian politics that disappears. At 89, he did everything, everything known. Ambassador to the United States in the 1960s, he was then Minister of Economy and Finance to Félix Houphouët-Boigny, before becoming President of the National Assembly, then Head of State at the death of the «Vieux», in 1993.
In 1999, he was overthrown by a putsch led by General Robert Gueï. This episode forever marked his conception of politics. This cigar lover, stingy in words, will not cease to want to recover this lost power, for him but also for his formation, the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), of which he presided over the destinies since 1994.
As a reminder, slowly, Henri Konan Bédié is entering the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI). The opposition, almost entirely assembled, follows him in merry disorder. The former head of state knows he is expected. The red carpet was rolled out, the volume of the music was raised, and a small cushion was installed in his armchair to relieve his back. In the gallery, he listens to the speeches that follow one another, each repeating forcefully “that there will be no election under these conditions,” and then drops these words, of which he weighed all the weight: “In the face of forfeiture, a single slogan, irreversible: civil disobedience.”
“They have always been in competition”
On September 20, 86-year-old Henri Konan Bédié took a new step, appearing to find a new youth in adversity. As a presidential candidate on October 31, he will do everything to prevent Alassane Ouattara, 78, from running for a third term. Because there is no doubt: the rivalry between them may not sum up the upcoming election in itself, but it is an essential element.
They have been together for over 30 years. Despite that, they have never been friends. “They have always been in competition,” says a source close to the two men. “ There has always been an equivocal, detestable surveillance between them. But never a real esteem or affinity.”
Their common history marries that of the independent ivory coast
Bédié and Ouattara are very different. The president of the PDCI is silent – he has made it his trademark. He is also a local man, while the candidate of the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP), willingly affable, was built in an Anglo-Saxon world.
Their common history marries that of independent Côte d’Ivoire. It is a play in several acts. A political comedy that constantly sees the same characters return to the forefront. They are the main actors and master the workings like no one else. After fighting to ascend the throne of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, after allied against Laurent Gbagbo, they are once again enemies. I promise, this is their last fight.
