Danièle Darlan lives under high protection. To enter his home, you have to show your credentials to a dozen Mauritanian peacekeepers who protect his home. She has not only had friends since in 2022, the Constitutional Court which she then chairs opposes the draft referendum on the Constitution which was held on Sunday July 30 and must allow President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to run for as many terms as he wishes. A decision that resulted in her being dismissed from her post.
Danièle Darlan nevertheless welcomes the visitor with a warm smile and in an elegant yellow dress bought in the United States, where she received the International Prize for Women of Courage from the State Department. When we met her, she was about to fly to Benin, opportunely invited for a seminar less than a week before the fateful election.
Danièle Darlan was born in 1952, endowed with a heavy heritage. His father, Georges Darlan, was the first president of the Representative Council of Oubangui-Chari, the former name of the Central African Republic. He devoted his life to politics, to the point that his daughter only kept a handful of memories of him. “He already considered the country too unstable and sent me to boarding school in France, in Brest,” she says.
Back in Bangui, the young girl dreams of being a journalist, but the head of state, Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1966-1979), quickly dissuades her. “I have been chosen to welcome the president at a ceremony. When he saw me he asked me what I wanted to do next and when I answered he let out a loud cry of disapproval. He had a habit of putting journalists in jail,” she smiles.
“Every decision can set the country on fire”
After studying law in France, the young woman chose teaching, her “true passion”. Danièle Darlan takes a sad look at the level of students, which she has seen deteriorate over the years, due to lack of funding for the education sector since the time of Bokassa. Built in 1969 for a staff of 500 students, the only university in the country now welcomes 14,000 young people in its dilapidated premises. She also regrets having seen the temple of knowledge gradually become politicized, until it constituted the heart of power under the presidency of Touadéra, professor of mathematics and former rector of the university.
Married in second marriage with the ex-minister and former rebel Jean-Jacques Démafouth, Danièle Darlan crosses by his side the turbulent history of the country. “Our life has been punctuated by crises, from mutinies to coup attempts,” she sighs. Until the arrest of her husband, accused of an attempted putsch in 2001. Released, he went into exile in Paris.
Back in the Central African Republic a year later, Danièle Darlan joined the Constitutional Court. Shortly after, the Seleka rebel coalition plunged the country into a bloody civil war. Elected to the presidency of the court four years later, she is the first woman to hold this position in the Central African Republic. “The responsibility is immense,” she explains, “because every decision can set the country on fire. From the invalidation of the candidacy of François Bozizé, in December 2020, which serves as a pretext for the latter to launch a new rebellion, until the confirmation of the results of the presidential election despite an organization deemed “catastrophic », the body is subject to crucial and disputed choices. Political pressures from all sides put the legendary calm of Danièle Darlan to the test.
The septuagenarian points on her shelf to a red and gold Fabergé egg containing a watch of the greatest post-Soviet kitsch. “He has a special story,” she smiles. In 2022, the charge d’affaires of the Russian Embassy came to see me officially at the Constitutional Court. In the presence of my collaborators, he asked me the fateful question: “How can President Touadera stay in power”? »
“I prefer dismissal to compromise”
The presidential majority then launched its first trial balloons to reform the Constitution and allow the Head of State to run for new terms. The request then became more insistent. On September 8, 2022, a hundred violent demonstrators gathered in front of the Constitutional Court to demand the resignation of Danièle Darlan. Death threats are made against him. On the 23rd, despite intimidation, the institution nevertheless invalidated the committee responsible for drafting a new Constitution, on the grounds that a revision of the fundamental law “can only be carried out after the establishment of the Senate”, which does not was ever instituted. “A decision rendered unanimously and which is not subject to any appeal”, she wishes to emphasize.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be liked, but I didn’t expect what followed,” she confesses. By presidential decree, on October 25, 2022, Danièle Darlan was relieved of her duties for “permanent incapacity” after being retired from the public service. “I put my things away without really realizing. It was not so much losing my job as the violation of law that saddened me, and what it meant for the future of our democracy. »
“I don’t regret anything, because there is nothing to regret,” she corrects herself. I prefer dismissal to compromise. Before 2013, the Constitutional Court only existed on paper. We have built its legitimacy on the strength of the law. The people know it. Look what it has become: an organ stripped of credibility. »
She glances at the chest of drawers above which the photo of her late brother, the legendary Central African singer Yezo, sits enthroned in the midst of numerous distinctions and press clippings. “Those who wanted to destroy me made an icon of me,” she whispers thoughtfully. Since my dismissal, I continue to be invited around the world. Students take selfies with me like I’m a star. They say I am an example. Nothing warms my heart more. »
