FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo, Aboudramane Sangaré, and other allies during the one-party rule of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

Gbagbo was sworn in as President after the heavily disputed presidential election of October 22, 2000.

In the parliamentary election held on 10 December 2000 and 14 January 2001, the party won 96 out of 225 seats.

[6] The party also complained of having been limited in informing the electorate, with the pro-FPI newspaper Notre Voie having been banned by the government and many of its journalists arrested or jailed.

He denounced the incarceration of Gbagbo by the International Criminal Court and political conditions under Ouattara: "Peace isn't only the silence of weapons.