Félix Tshisekedi

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Félix Tshisekedi (2019)

Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo (born June 13, 1963 in Léopoldville , now Kinshasa) is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been president of his country since 2019 . In this position he succeeds Joseph Kabila , who had headed the country for almost 18 years.

As a candidate for the Cap pour le changement alliance - including his Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS) - Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the 2018 presidential election . Numerous political observers consider the election results to be grossly falsified and see Martin Fayulu as the winner.

Life

Félix Tshisekedi's father was the longtime politician and multiple Prime Minister Étienne Tshisekedi , who founded the UDPS in 1982, his mother is Marthe Kasulu Tshisekedi. He grew up with four siblings. When his father was forced into house arrest under the Mobutu government , his son had to abandon his studies and move to live with his father in what was then the province of Kasaï-Occidental . In 1985 Félix Tshisekedi was allowed to leave for Brussels , where he worked in various jobs. According to him, he graduated from the Institut des Carrières Commerciales (ICC) in Brussels in 1991 with a degree in "Marketing and Communication" for which there is no evidence. The presumably fake certificate, which is also described as invalid, is said to have been submitted for the 2018 presidential candidacy, which the UDPS, however, denied.

In 2008 the UDPS elected him national secretary for foreign relations. In the 2011 parliamentary election , he won a seat in the National Assembly in the Mbuji-Mayi constituency , but did not accept it because the UDPS considered the national election result to be falsified. In 2016 Tshisekedi became Deputy Secretary General of the UDPS. After the death of his father in 2017, he was elected the new party chairman, chairman of the opposition alliance Rassemblement and later the presidential candidate of the UDPS in March 2018 .

On November 11, 2018, several opposition politicians, including Tshisekedi, Martin Fayulu and Vital Kamerhe , decided in Geneva that Fayulu should run as their joint candidate against the candidate of the previous ruler, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary . The following day, Tshisekedi and Kamerhe revoked the agreement because they felt that Fayulu had too little political experience. The two decided that Tshisekedi should run and Kamerhe should lead his election campaign, only to become prime minister after an election victory. In return, Tshisekedi is expected to support the candidate of Kamerhe's party as presidential candidate in the elections in 2023. However, in April 2020, Kamerhe was arrested on charges of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June.

Between the day of the election and the announcement of the results, there were several meetings between Tshisekedi's advisers and the outgoing President Joseph Kabila . In February 2019, on a state visit to Namibia , Tshisekedi admitted that there was a contract with Kabila.

According to the electoral commission, Tshisekedi won the election with over 7 of the 18 million votes cast (38.6%) by a narrow margin over second-placed Martin Fayulu. According to election observers and leaked figures from the election commission, Tshisekedi received just under 20% of the vote. After his election he called Kabila “no longer an opponent, but a partner in the democratic change in our country”.

Numerous politicians and organizations, including the African Union , questioned the outcome of the election and called for a recount. Fayulu filed a lawsuit against the result, but on January 20, 2019 the Constitutional Court dismissed it as unfounded. Tshisekedi's inauguration was scheduled for January 22nd and took place on January 24th. He promised to spend $ 86 billion on fighting unemployment, poverty and raising the median income within ten years.

After 30 days in office, Tshisekedi announced in an "emergency program" that all political prisoners would be pardoned and that extensive funds would be released for road construction. On May 20, he finally appointed Kabila confidante Sylvestre Ilunga prime minister. Tshisekedi was only able to form a cabinet at the end of August 2019.

On February 6, 2021, Tshisekedi took over the post of chairman of the African Union for one year .

Tshisekedi is married to Denise Nyakeru Tshilombo and has five children.

Web links

Commons : Félix Tshisekedi  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Opposition candidate Tshisekedi wins. deutschlandfunk.de from January 10, 2019, accessed on January 10, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Une fuite de données désigne Fayulu comme gagnant des élections avec une large avance. La Libre Belgique (French), January 15, 2019
  3. ↑ David Lewis, Aaron Ross, Ryan McNeill, Joori Roh: How Kabila's election strategy unraveled. af.reuters.com from January 19, 2019 (English), accessed on January 19, 2019
  4. ^ Félix Tshisekedi. Jeune Afrique (French), accessed December 22, 2018
  5. ^ La Libre Belgique: RDC: le diplôme de Félix Tshisekedi est un faux . on www.afrique.lalibre.be (French)
  6. ^ Congo's opposition leader's Belgian academic certificate forgery. brusselstimes.com of January 8, 2019 (English), accessed on January 10, 2019
  7. ↑ RTBF : La Ville de Bruxelles confirme que Félix Tshisekedi n'a pas obtenu son diplôme en marketing et communication . on www.rtbf.be (French)
  8. ^ Elections in the Congo: "I am the rightful candidate of the opposition". dw.com on November 23, 2018, accessed December 20, 2018
  9. ^ Congo's Tshisekedi and Kamerhe form presidential pact. Reuters of November 23, 2018 (English), accessed December 22, 2018
  10. ↑ Thomson Reuters: Congo president's chief of staff arrested amid graft probe. cbc.ca of April 8, 2020, accessed on April 9, 2020
  11. ↑ Bernd Dörries: Doubts about the election result. Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 10, 2019, accessed on January 10, 2019
  12. ↑ Jason Burke: Why Kabila may be real victor of DRC's contested election. theguardian of January 11, 2019, accessed on January 11, 2019
  13. ↑ Félix Tshisekedi revele que le "deal" avec Kabila était en vue d'une coalition au gouvernement. voaafrique.com of February 26, 2019 (French), accessed March 5, 2019
  14. ↑ 'Kabila partner in democratic change', Tshisekedi. news24.com from January 10, 2019, accessed on January 11, 2019
  15. ↑ Change of power in the Congo: Tshisekedi now officially president. Der Standard , January 20, 2019, accessed the same day.
  16. ↑ Félix Tshisekedi sworn in as the new President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. zeit.de of January 24, 2019
  17. ^ Hermann Boko: RD Congo: Félix Tshisekedi débute son mandat dans l'ombre de Joseph Kabila. france24.com of January 23, 2019 (French), accessed January 26, 2019
  18. ^ Dominic Johnson : Freedom and Work. taz.de from March 3, 2019, accessed on March 5, 2019
  19. ↑ Sylverte Ilunga Ilunkamba nommé Premier ministre de la RD Congo. france24.com of May 20, 2019 (French), accessed May 20, 2019
  20. ^ DRC: Felix Tshisekedi cabinet in place. africanews.com of August 27, 2019, accessed August 27, 2019
  21. ^ DR Congo's President Tshisekedi becomes African Union chairman Africanews on February 6, 2021, accessed on February 7, 2021
  22. ↑ Denise Nyakeru Tshilombo devient la nouvelle première dame de la RDC. times.cd of January 25, 2019 (French), accessed on March 27, 2019
  23. ^ In Congo the Tshisekedi no-one had expected takes power. voanews.com of January 23, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Tshisekedi, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tshisekedi Tshilombo, Félix Antoine
SHORT DESCRIPTION Congolese politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Léopoldville