President Laurent Gbagbo did indeed win the 2010 presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire, but was ousted from power by Nicolas Sarkozy in favour of his challenger Alassane Ouattara, Robert Bourgi said."As Jean Ping won the elections in 2016 in Libreville (in Abidjan), Gbagbo won the elections, not Ouattara," said Robert Bourgi, a key player in France-Africa relations, during an interview with France 24.In November 2010, following the second round of the presidential election, the Independent Electoral Commission declared Alassane Ouattara the winner before the Constitutional Council proclaimed the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo.According to Robert Bourgi, the French president at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, then instructed him to encourage Laurent Gbagbo to step down from power, in exchange for the promise of a golden pension of 30 million CFA francs per month, honors and the opportunity to teach history in major universities around the world.Faced with President Gbagbo's refusal to give in, Nicola s Sarkozy became angry and promised to "vitrify" him (which can be translated as destroy or atomize), Mr. Bourgi continued.In April 2011, France obtained a UN mandate and helped the New Forces (rebels) dislodge Laurent Gbagbo."When Laurent fell and was taken to The Hague (ICC), I suffered a lot. Personally and in my family, I suffered terribly," confided Robert Bourgi.According to him, President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who had received financial support of 3 million dollars from Laurent Gbagbo in 2002, showed "unparalleled ingratitude".Let us recall that the post-election crisis of 2010-2011 cost the lives of at least three thousand people and deeply weakened the Ivorian social fabric.Source: Burkina Information Agency