Angola's Joao Lourenco has been sworn in on Tuesday as president replacing Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the oil-rich country with an iron grip for 38 years. Who is the man who ran on the ticket of the MPLA?
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Joao Lourenco is considered to be a loyal party soldier - a man who has always been ready to take on greater responsibility in the governing People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He served as governor in several provinces of Angola, and between 1992 and 1997 he was responsible for propaganda in the MPLA's Politburo. Later, he served as the party's secretary-general for several years.
Lourenco was recently the country's defense minister before becoming the ruling party's flag-bearer in the August 23 parliamentary election to replace long-term President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. "He is continuing to take on responsibility now," state-run newspaper Jornal de Angola wrote, praising him.
However, Lourenco's ambition almost cost him his career in the past.
In 2003, he fell into a trap: He put himself forward as a possible successor in the country's highest political office as dos Santos began openly thinking about stepping down. However, at that time, dos Santos did not really want to abdicate. Instead, he wanted to find out whether there were opponents with ambitions of power within the MPLA.
Dos Santos is accused of leading one of Africa's most corrupt regimesImage: picture-alliance/dpa/P.Novais
The background: Jonas Savimbi, leader of the former liberation movement UNITA, had just fallen in battle. The MPLA celebrated its victory over the rebels and dos Santos was publicly playing with the idea of standing down because his most important promise as head of state had been fulfilled.
Lourenco's push to the front was badly timed and he fell into disfavor for several years.
The resilient politician
It took 10 years for Lourenco to recover from this faux pas. In December 2016, he reached his goal. Following a proposal by party chairman dos Santos, the central committee of the ruling party decided to place Lourenco as No. 1 on its ticket for the August 2017 poll, thus making him the party's presidential candidate.
In the last election in 2012, the all-powerful governing party polled over 70 percent of the votes. And this time, too, everything had pointed to a victory - despite great dissatisfaction among Angolans and despite a severe economic and financial crisis.
The fact is, the MPLA controls the money and the media, and dominates everything during election campaigns. The five opposition parties are poorly organized, have little money to finance the election campaign, and do not manage to get their messages to the people.
Old promise in new packaging
"We are the guarantors of development and progress, we create new jobs, and we improve the health and school systems" - these are Lourenco's campaign messages, and they could be seen and heard by Angolans on all broadcasting channels.
The party produced radio and TV programs and printed newspapers and pamphlets. It organized election campaigns in all provinces, handed out T-shirts, beer and other gifts.
Angola produces and exports more petroleum than any other African countryImage: MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
MPLA rallies are always well attended. If necessary, the ruling party transports its supporters long distances so they can attend. The rather pale Lourenco was turned into a superstar.
"Lourenco's task is to ensure continuity," said Angolan blogger and human rights activist Rafael Marques, meaning continuity in the way the police, the military and the intelligence service are run.
A new law passed in the last parliamentary session ensures that personnel decisions by the outgoing president are out of bounds for the new president. The law was passed by a large majority. The two major opposition parties, UNITA and CASA-CE, voted against it. But the two parties combined make up only 40 of a total of 220 lawmakers.
Many Angolans are wondering whether this law does not place too many limits on the new president's ability to act. Will Lourenco, who is a general himself, fully submit to the decisions of his predecessor, as the new law dictates? Or will he want to make his own personnel decisions?
The fight against corruption
During the run-up to the elections, the opposition accused the MPLA and its candidate Lourenco of being incompetent and corrupt. Lourenco went on the offensive, repeatedly denouncing his political opponents as "crooks" and announcing a major fight against corruption in Angola. The country needs transparency and stability, he said, adding that the only way to promote the new objectives of the MPLA government is to diversify the Angolan economy and attract foreign investors.
Human rights activist Rafael Marques doubts whether Lourenco will really tackle corruption. He believes dos Santos chose him as his successor precisely because of this reason. "The [former] president has always opted for a corrupt person; he always protects the corrupt," said Marques.
Between 1961 and 1975, the MPLA, UNITA, and FNLA fought over control of the countryImage: picture-alliance/dpa
The flagbearer of the largest opposition party UNITA, Vitorino Nhany, pointed to one of the many financial scandals of recent years: the bankruptcy of BESA Bank, the Angolan branch of the Portuguese Espírito Santo Bank. In this case, nearly $6 billion apparently disappeared. "Lourenco describes us, the opposition, as crooks, but we ask him why he got $30 million from the Espírito Santo Bank? Who is the real crook?" Nhany said.
A life for the party
Lourenco was born in 1954 in the port town of Lobito. He was 21 years old when the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. He joined the Marxist MPLA, one of three liberation movements that seized power in the capital, Luanda, and waged a bloody war against the rebel movements UNITA and FNLA.
Lourenco comes from a modest background: his father is a medical worker, his mother a seamstress. The MPLA's war against the rebels became young Lourenco's first professional area of work.
In the north of the country, on the border with Congo, Lourenco earned his first spurs as a soldier. He took part in several military exercises and training courses run by Cuban advisors. Of all liberation movements, the MPLA was the best-organized with international connections, especially with Cuba and the Soviet Union, but also with other eastern bloc countries in Europe.
In 1978, Lourenco traveled to the Soviet Union, where he completed a history course for party cadres at the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin military academy. After his return to Angola, Lourenco quickly rose to the rank of general, consolidated his position in the party and founded a family. He married an MPLA leader, who later clinched a ministerial position as well as a post with the World Bank. His marriage with Ana Dias Lourenco produced six children, who are now also politically active - with the MPLA, of course.
Dos Santos: Angola's 'eternal' president
Only one man has held presidential office in Angola since 1979. But now Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said he will step down after this year's elections. DW looks back at his 37-years at the top of Angolan politics.
Image: Reuters
The fight for Angolan independence
At the age of 19, Jose Eduardo dos Santos joined the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist-inspired party fighting for Angola's freedom from Portuguese colonial rule. In 1963, dos Santos received a scholarship to study petrochemistry in the former Soviet Union, where he later went on to train in military communications. In 1970, he returned to Angola.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A place at the Cabinet table
After independence from Portugal was declared in 1975, civil war broke out between the three independence movements: the MPLA, UNITA and FNLA. The capital city Luanda was under MPLA control. The party leader, Agostinho Neto (pictured), became the first president of an independent Angola and established a one-party system. Dos Santos was appointed foreign minister and later planning minister.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Alliance with the Eastern Bloc
In September 1979, Neto died in Moscow. The MPLA chose dos Santos to be the new president of Angola. He strengthened alliances with communist countries in the Eastern Bloc - such as the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany. In 1981, he visited East Germany and was received by Erich Honecker (pictured, left), the general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party.
During his stay in East Germany, dos Santos visited the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall - both symbols of the Cold War and the divide between East and West. In Angola, the Cold War had turned into a "hot" proxy war. The West - particularly South Africa and the United States - supported UNITA, while the East stood with the MPLA.
Image: Bundesarchiv
Side-by-side with Cuba
Cuba took the militarily weak MPLA government under its wing. It sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in Angola, for example in 1988 in the battle of Cuito Canavale - one of the deadliest in the Angolan civil war. Three years later, an initial peace accord was signed in Portugal.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The peace deal breaks down
The first free elections took place in 1992. The MPLA won a parliamentary majority but dos Santos did not secure an outright victory in the first round of the presidential election. The runoff against Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, never took place. War broke out again after UNITA rejected the elections, casting allegations of vote-rigging.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
The West loses interest
Once the Cold War was over, the West lost interest in the Angolan civil war. In 1993, the US recognized the MPLA government, which was increasingly embracing capitalism. After Apartheid had come to an end in South Africa, UNITA lost its most important ally. A 1994 peace deal in Angola also broke down, and dos Santos went into full-on military mode.
Image: Jörg Böthling/Brot für die Welt
Wading into the Congo Crisis
In 1998, the Angolan military came to the aid of Laurent-Desire Kabila (pictured) during the Congo crisis. By helping Kabila become president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, dos Santos was able to remove one of UNITA's areas of refuge. This move also established Angola as a leading military power in southern Africa.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/P.Wojazer
Taking down Savimbi
An international weapons embargo weakened UNITA, which was becoming increasingly isolated. On February 22, 2002, government troops killed UNITA's leader Jonas Savimbi (pictured). In the same year, UNITA and MPLA signed another peace deal. This brought one of Africa's bloodiest civil wars - in which 1 million people died and 4 million fled the country - to an end.
Image: AP
Reminders of war
Many years after the end of the civil war, the destruction is still evident across the country. The armed forces continued to play an important role in the Angolan president's leadership. Clashes between government forces the separatist group FLEC still occur regularly in the northern enclave of Cabinda.
Image: gemeinfrei
Postponed elections
The second parliamentary elections, planned for 1997, did not take place until 2008. The MPLA emerged victorious, with 81.6 percent of the votes, while UNITA secured 10.4 percent. There were complaints of voter intimidation and poor organization. The 2009 presidential election was called off and dos Santos stayed in power.
Image: Reuters
An uncertain partnership
In 2011, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Angola and even signed a "strategic partnership" with dos Santos. German companies initially showed interest in investment opportunities in Angola - but few projects actually came to fruition in subsequent years.
Image: dapd
Stifling the opposition
Inspired by the Arab Spring, young Angolans took to the streets in 2011 to protest against dos Santos. The police used force to suppress demonstrations and activists were arrested. In 2013, the presidential guard shot two opposition activists. Members of the Adventist sect "Luz do Mundo" (Light of the World) were also targeted. Human rights observers accused the police of extrajudicial killings.
Image: DW/N. Sul d´Angola
Legitimate leadership
In 2010, parliament changed the constitution and abolished direct presidential elections. The leader of the party with the most votes in the parliamentary elections would become president. In 2012, the MPLA took 71.9 percent of the votes. After 32 years in office, dos Santos had democratic legitimacy for the first time. Observers argued that the opposition did not have a fair chance.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Family man
Family is also a powerful driving force behind the dos Santos leadership. He met his third and current wife, former model Ana Paula dos Santos (pictured), when she was working as a stewardess on the presidential plane. They married in 1991 and had four children. Ana Paula dos Santos will be put forward as an MPLA parliamentary candidate this year.
Image: Reuters
The richest woman in Africa
Dos Santos' daughter Isabel - who he had with his former wife, Russian chess champion Tatiana Kukanova - was named the richest woman in Africa by Forbes magazine in 2011. She has invested in businesses ranging from telecommunications to sports. Dos Santos' son José Filomeno - from his second marriage, to Filomena de Sousa - leads the state investment fund.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Scratching China's back
China is dos Santos' new best friend. The country is the main buyer of Angolan oil and Chinese credit has funded Angolan infrastructure projects. With this money, Chinese firms have built whole districts in Angola, like Kilamba Kiaxi (pictured). Unlike the IMF and western lenders, China does not impose any loan conditions based on transparency or human rights.
Image: cc by sa Santa Martha
Poverty and development
Despite the country's oil wealth, many Angolans still live in extreme poverty. The country has the highest global rate of death among infants. Even in the middle of the capital city, Luanda, there are neighborhoods without waste water disposal. Health services, which are often only offered privately, are too expensive for many people. The education system is similarly underdeveloped.
Image: DW/N. Sul d'Angola
Keeping a low profile
It is rare to see dos Santos in interviews or press conferences and he seldom gives speeches. In recent years, the president has traveled regularly to Spain for medical treatment. Only one African leader - Teodoro Obiang of Equitorial Guinea - has been in office longer than dos Santos.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P.Novais
A successor for dos Santos
Once dos Santos announced that he would not be standing again for office in August 2017, the MPLA put forward Defense Minister Joao Lourenco (pictured) as its main candidate for the parliamentary elections. However, Dos Santos will remain the leader of the party, ensuring his continued presence in Angolan politics.
