2024-01-01 17:03:22
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi won a second term at the head of the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa on Sunday. Son of the historic opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi, the man nicknamed “Fatshi” acceded to the supreme office in 2019 during the first peaceful transition in the country’s history. France 24 retraces his journey.
Its supporters see it as a real popular plebiscite. His opponents denounce a “sham election“. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi won the presidential election with 73.34% of the votes, the National Electoral Commission (Céni) declared on Sunday, December 31, far ahead of his main rivals Moïse Katumbi (18.08%) and Martin Fayulu (5.33%).
In power since January 2019, the man nicknamed by the diminutive “Fatshi” or even “Concrete Fatshi”, in reference to his promise to rebuild the Democratic Republic of Congo, succeeded President Joseph Kabila, after nearly 19 years of reign, during the first peaceful transition in the country’s history. Nurtured with politics since his early childhood, he methodically climbed the ranks to establish himself sustainably at the head of this gigantic Central African country.
Continue the work of the father
Born in 1963, Félix Tshisekedi is the son of Étienne Tshisekedi, the late historic leader of the opposition. This former traveling companion of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko (1965-1997), whose minister he was several times, chose dissidence in the early 1980s and created his own party, the Union for Democracy and social progress (UDPS). He tried his luck in the 2011 presidential election, won by Joseph Kabila.
Third child in a family of five, Félix began his political journey in the shadow of his father. At 19, he followed his father relegated by Mobutu to his village in Kasai. At the age of 22, “Fatshi”, his mother and his brothers went into exile in Belgium, a country that he considered his “second Congo”, where he notably followed training in marketing and communication.
He begins to climb the ranks of his father’s party. He obtained his first mandate as a deputy in 2011, but refused to sit in the National Assembly to respect his father’s slogan against the contested re-election of Joseph Kabila to power. When Étienne Tshisekedi died in 2017, his son took over the leadership of the party and became a candidate for the presidential election in March 2018.
“I have absolutely no intention or ambition to measure myself against what he was, but my dream is to continue his work,” he declared about his father, before to fulfill his dream by becoming, on January 24, 2019, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Disputed victory
Often described as a discreet character despite his imposing stature, cultivating the art of compromise, Félix Tshisekedi is no less a strategist. While he had to rally behind the sole opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, “Fatshi” finally formed a winning ticket with the former president of the National Assembly, Vital Kamerhe, who opened the doors to the presidency for him.
He was declared the winner with 38.57% of the votes, ahead of Martin Fayulu (34.83%) who then denounced “electoral putsch” and “ridiculous” results, which have nothing to do with the truth of the ballot boxes.
While the Catholic Church of the DRC, which had deployed observers in the polling stations, also seems to express doubts, the unsuccessful candidate is awaiting legal action.
The election of Félix Tshisekedi will ultimately be validated by the Constitutional Courtconsidering the results provided by the Independent Electoral Commission (Céni) “authentic and sincere”.
If at the start of his mandate, a coalition agreement linked him to Joseph Kabila, he quickly shattered it by asserting himself as the sole leader on board. Multiple outbursts and a political skill which initially surprised observers, but which contributed to the “son of” making a first name for himself.
Mixed assessment
The new president focused his program on security and the fight against poverty. Five years later, several major social reforms have seen the light of day, such as free education – even if its implementation has been criticized – or free maternity care. But many criticize him for not having broken with the system of predation of resources and for not having succeeded in pacifying the east of the country, the main black spot of his five-year term.
Félix Tshisekedi, for his part, denounces the “aggressions” of neighboring Rwanda, whom he accuses of supporting the M23 rebels in this area, “in defiance of international law”.
Questioned on France 24 one month before the election, the president defended his results, welcoming progress “which only needs to be consolidated”.
“Many things still remain to be done but the Congo has come a long way,” he said, welcoming, in passing, the recent improvement of his country’s rating by international rating agencies.
On his chances of re-election, he was not very talkative: “I remain serene and modest.”
Since the last presidential election, Félix Tshisekedi has widened the gap with his competitors, obtaining a score almost twice that of 2018. A celebration, nevertheless somewhat spoiled by new accusations of fraud, emanating from the opposition, linked to numerous delays and logistical problems marring the vote.
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