 The situation was at least superficially resolved by December 2006, when a party congress involving both factions was held; Lekoundzou was elected to the Political Bureau, but the power of the conservatives in general was weakened.In an early 2007 interview, Sassou Nguesso said that Lekoundzou, who had been living in France for some months, was there for health reasons as far as he knew, not as a result of any bitterness between them.Together with Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya, the President of the National Assembly, Lekoundzou (who was still President of the Parliamentary Group of the Presidential Majority, but was out of the country due to illness) sent a letter to President Sassou Nguesso on 24 March 2007.