Antoine Gizenga

Antoine Gizenga ( born October 5, 1925 in Mushiko ) is a Congolese politician. From 1960 to 1962 he was Deputy Prime Minister, dated 30 December 2006, he served until October 10, 2008 Prime Minister of his country.

Early years

After attending school in the seminary of Kinzambi he worked for the Catholic mission in Leopoldville. In April 1959, he became president of the newly formed party PSA ( Parti Solidaire Africain ). In December 1959, his party formed an alliance with the ABAKO of Joseph Kasavubu. He was the head of the delegation of its PSA with the city's Party Conference, which began on 20 January 1960. Rather than participate in the talks, he traveled to Eastern Europe and made on the return trip in Conakry station.

Independence

In the first election in May 1960, the PSA reached 13 of the 137 seats at the national level. In provincial Parliament of Leopoldville was with 35 of the 90 seats strongest party. After independence on 30 June 1960 he became deputy in the government of Prime Minister Lumumba. When it came to increasing tensions between Lumumba and Kasavubu, Lumumba supported Gizenga.

As Mobutu Sese Seko in September 1960 for the first time staged a coup and the now jailed Lumumba shortly after unsuccessfully trying to flee to him, he set up a rival government in November in Stanleyville. In August 1961, he returned to Leopoldville and was deputy prime minister under Cyrille Adoula. In January 1962 he was released and up to July 1964 held prisoner for a time on the island Bula Bemba in the Congo estuary.

Exile

At the time of Moise Tshombe Adoulas successor he stood, between October 1964 and the end of 1965 under house arrest. He was allowed to go into exile and lived the next 27 years in the Soviet Union, France, Angola and Congo - Brazzaville. After an assassination attempt on him he had to leave France; for Angola, he was a burden, when the government of José Eduardo dos Santos reconciled with Zaire.

During his exile, he founded the first rather meaningless PALU party ( Parti Lumumbistes unifies ), President Mobutu, whose power was consolidated at this time, allowed him to return in 1992. In the last years of Mobutu's reign, he became politically active again and presented himself as the true heir of Lumumba.

After Mobutu

In 2002, his party took part in the all-party talks of the Congolese civil war parties in South Africa. Opinion polls in the Greater Kinshasa figured Gizengas support among the population to about ten percent by Etienne Tshisekedi with the leading 21 percent in surveys conducted by the Institute Les Points of February 2005, he was on the list of the most popular politicians in the Congo with 4.2 percent in fifth place, at the top continue Tshisekedi with 34.9 percent. Both stand in opposition to President Joseph Kabila.

In the 2006 elections he stood as a candidate for the post of president and achieved among over 30 candidates with 13.06 percent a respectable third place. In the runoff election, he supported the incumbent President Joseph Kabila against challenger Jean -Pierre Bemba. Turn of the year, he was named the winner Kabila as the new Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As prime minister, he sits among other things to ensure that the dubious contracts between powerful warlords and the Congolese mines are reviewed in more detail. The Office of the Prime Minister he resigned in late September 2008 due to age and health reasons. , Which has been taken from then until 2012 by his nephew Adolphe Muzito.