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In 1945, the first Congolese deputy, Jean Félix
Tchicaya, was elected to the Constituent
Assembly; leader of the Congolese Progressive Party
(PPC), focuses on the African Democratic Meeting
(GDR). In the face of this and the socialist leader, J.
Opangault, Abbot Fulbert Youlou, won in the 1956
legislative elections, creates the Democratic Union for
the Defense of African Interests (UDDIA), the local
section of the GDR and, supported by the Kongos,
achieves a success brilliant in the municipal elections
of November 1956.
In January 1959, bloody clashes took place in
Brazzaville that opposed UDDIA to the PPC, leading to
the intervention of French troops.
On August 15, 1960, the Republic of Congo obtains its
complete independence. Abbé Fulbert Youlou, a Catholic
priest, was elected first President and guided the Congo
towards unipartisanship, in line with the trend of the
time across the African continent.
A series of leftist military governments ruled the
country until the presidential elections in 1979, with
Colonel Denis Sassou-Nguesso being elected. Following
the political orientation of his predecessors,
Sassou-Nguesso followed the socialist path of
development. His position gradually weakened from the
mid-1980s, with the introduction of austerity measures,
with an attempted coup d'état in July 1987.
For several years, there were tensions, sometimes
severe, between the various factions of the army, which
eventually led to the deposition of Sassou-Nguesso. The
government's foreign policy, since 1989, has distanced
itself from the former Soviet Union, of which it was a
firm ally, to approach France and the French-speaking
countries of East Africa.
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