Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina condemned on Friday what he said was an attempt to topple his government as fresh protests flared against the political elite and years of misrule.
The poverty-stricken Indian Ocean island has been rocked by near-daily demonstrations called on social media by a movement called ‘Gen Z’, to which security forces have responded with arrests, tear gas, and bullets.
The protests forced Rajoelina to sack his government on Monday and invite dialogue to restore order.
But that was not enough to placate the anger, and demonstrators have demanded the president’s resignation over his failure to deliver basic services, including water and electricity.
‘They have been exploited to provoke a coup’, the 51-year-old said in an online video on Friday in reference to the mostly young protesters.
‘What I want to tell you is that some people want to destroy our country’, he said, without naming who he alleged was behind the move.
‘Countries and agencies paid for this movement to get me out, not through elections, but for profit to take power like other African countries’, Rajoelina continued in a live video on his Facebook page.
‘That’s why I tell you to be very careful’, he said.
He also blamed a ‘cyberattack’ for ‘mass manipulation’.
‘Contempt’
The Gen Z movement rejected Rajoelina’s speech as ‘senseless’, deploring his ‘contempt’, for young people.
‘We represent an angry people who can no longer be manipulated’, they said in statements on social media.
They demanded to be ‘consulted and heard’ in the choice of a new premier, and called for an investigation into the police crackdown.
The group, which announced its spokespeople and outlined its motivations the day before, vowed to take ‘all necessary measures’ if the president did not ‘respond favourably’ within 24 hours.
At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds injured since the protests started, according to the United Nations, a toll the government has denied as based on rumours or misinformation.
Protesters mobilised again on Friday in several neighbourhoods of the capital Antananarivo after a 24-hour ‘strategic’ pause.
But the city centre remained under strict gridlock and a heavy security presence.
Police pickups sped through the city centre, AFP journalists saw, and security forces fired tear gas sporadically while shops stayed shut along the capital’s main Independence Avenue.
Students who were demonstrating in the northern coastal city of Mahajanga were also dispersed, according to local media.
In the south, protests were seen in Toliara and Fianarantsoa.
Strike
Customs personnel and prison staff unions announced a three-day strike on Friday afternoon, following previous calls for a general strike by several unions, including those representing national water and electricity workers.
In a rare show of unity, the political opposition has also thrown its support behind Gen Z.
The youth-led movement has adopted tactics seen in recent movements in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines, including the use of the pirate skull symbol from the Japanese anime ‘One Piece’.
The protests, which started on 25 September, are the latest bout of unrest in Madagascar since independence from France in 1960, posing the most significant challenge yet to Rajoelina’s tenure since his 2023 re-election.
Rajoelina said earlier he had met Madagascan religious leaders in a bid to quell the crisis, after seeing diplomats and representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.
The former mayor of Antananarivo first came to power in 2009 following a coup sparked by an uprising that ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana.
After not contesting the 2013 election under international pressure, he was voted back into office in 2018 and re-elected in 2023 in contested polls.
Despite its natural resources, Madagascar remains among the world’s poorest countries.
Nearly three-quarters of its population of 32 million were living below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.
Corruption is widespread, with the country ranking 140th out of 180 in Transparency International’s index.
