内容摘要：The talks were ultimately held on Friday but failed to yield any breakthrough on a ceasefire. However, the two sides reached a

The talks were ultimately held on Friday but failed to yield any breakthrough on a ceasefire. However, the two sides reached a

That painful history has spurred fears that this year’s polls could also turn violent, as several opposition candidates, including Gbagbo, have been barred from running, mainly due to past convictions. In 2018, the former president was sentenced in absentia to a 20-year jail term over the looting of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the country’s post-election crisis.Last December, the governing Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party nominated Ouattara for a fourth term as president. So far, Ouattara has refused to say whether he intends to run, triggering concerns among Ivorians, many of whom feel the president has outstayed his welcome. Analysts see the party’s nomination as setting the stage for his eventual candidature, however.

Analysts also say there is widespread sympathy for the young military leaders who seized power in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, and who have maintained a hostile stance towards France, unlike Ouattara.What is the popular view of Ouattara?He has been praised for overseeing rapid economic stability in the last decade and a half, which has made the country the regional economic hub.

Ouattara is also credited with bringing some level of political peace to the country. In 2023, he welcomed back Gbagbo, who had been living in Brussels since his 2021 ICC acquittal. Since then, election campaigns have not been as inflamed as they were in the 2000s when Gbagbo played on ethnic sentiments to incite opposition to Ouattara, whose father was originally from Burkina Faso.However, Ouattara’s critics accuse him of fighting to hold onto power unconstitutionally. Some also accuse him of coercing state institutions into railroading his political opponents, including in the latest case involving Thiam.

His closeness with France, which is increasingly viewed as arrogant and neo-colonialistic, particularly by younger people across Francophone West Africa, has not won the president any favour from the country’s significant under-35 population.

Who is Tidjane Thiam, and why has he been barred from the elections?However, by Sunday, he welcomed von der Leyen’s assertion that the bloc is willing to negotiate but needs more time.

“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she recapped on X. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”The bloc’s top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, had on Friday

the US to show “mutual respect, not threats”.Trump roiled financial markets with his Liberation Day announcement in April, which threatened sweeping tariffs on multiple countries.