Africa Monitor

Africa Monitor Intelligence

Angola: Lourenço Recovers Santos' Supporters in Name of MPLA Reunification

The effort of reunification of the MPLA ("MPLA family", internal definition) that JOÃO LOURENÇO (JL) has launched in recent weeks, aims, according to Intelligence analysis, to strengthen his power as leader of the regime - condition considered by himself as "indispensable" to aim/guarantee a victory in the general elections scheduled for the beginning of the second half of 2022.

The image of "reunifier" that JL intended to link to himself as a result of the aforementioned effort is, in his view and that of his advisers, the element that could most decisively contribute to the reinforcement of his power. The MPLA congress, DEC.2021, the rapprochement of JL with his predecessor, JOSÉ EDUARDO dos SANTOS (JES) and the reestablishment of the regime's "support" for economic groups led by figures considered "estranged", constituted the main steps taken in the sense of the reunification of the MPLA and the regime. READ MORE