Military junta takes power in Madagascar after youth forces former president out
On September 25, protests led by Malagasy youth began and on October 12, on a flight offered by France, the country’s still president, Andry Rajoelina, left the island for an unspecified “safe place”, from where he tried, without luck, to dissolve the National Assembly. Faced with pressure in the streets, the deputies voted in favor of the dismissal and, shortly after, the Corps of Administration of Personnel and Administrative and Technical Services (CAPSAT for its acronym in French), an elite unit of the Malagasy Army, announced the creation of the Transitional National Defense Committee (CDNT).
CAPSAT, which had already supported the revolts that in 2009 ended with the dismissal of the then president Marc Ravalomanana, replaced by Rajoelina – who remained in power until 2014, then won the elections in 2018 and was re-elected in 2023 -, has also been decisive on this occasion, especially when on October 11 it decided to support the protesters. After the seizure of power, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, head of CAPSAT, assured that “this is not a coup. The Army has responded to the incessant call made to it by the Malagasy people. “The power belongs to the people, not to me.” However, the African Union (AU) has already suspended Madagascar and has demanded the Army “immediately cease its interference, reestablish civilian government and organize free, fair and transparent elections.”
It does not seem that this will be the case, since Randrianirina assured that the transition period will last between 18 and 24 months, after which the elections will be organized. The CDNT will assume the functions of the presidency and, according to the colonel, will be made up of “officers from the Army, the Gendarmerie and the National Police and, perhaps later, by civilian advisors.” The military, who also announced the creation of a civilian government whose composition was not yet known at the time of going to press, assured that it would be announced “in a few days”, after the inauguration of Randrianirina, held on October 17 in Antananarivo. Three days later he appointed businessman and consultant Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo as prime minister.
A repeating pattern
Madagascar’s political history has been punctuated by periods of instability since its independence in 1960, marked by military coups in 1971, 1991 and 2009. This lack of political stability is one of the causes of the economic and social conditions facing the country. According to the World Bank, 75% of the population lives below the poverty line and the GDP per capita of the Malagasy has been reduced from $812 in 1960 to just $461 in 2025. Added to this is the fact that, according to the Corruption Index prepared by Transparency International, Madagascar ranks 140 out of 180. The straw that broke the camel’s back for Malagasy society were the continuous and recurring water and electricity cuts, in a country in which only 36.1% have access to energy supplies and only 14.75% of the population enjoys drinking water.
Youth leads
In line with the protests in Indonesia, Nepal, Peru, Serbia, Kenya and Morocco, groups of young people under 30 years of age, the so-called generation Z, have led the protests. Organized around messaging applications, Discord on this occasion, they have created a movement that has exceeded the response capacity of the executives in power. The struggle, which began with the demand to guarantee basic services, has evolved into a broader demand for political and economic rights. Alessia De Luca, in an analysis for ISPI, collects three elements that these youth movements in the global south have in common: they are led by the first generation of digital natives, to which is added the absence of a recognized leader or spokesperson and the fight against corruption and for social justice. Furthermore, as the journalist points out in her analysis, “while their European and North American contemporaries show their frustration by opting for more extremist policies and parties, generation Z in Africa, Asia and Latin America rebels against the aging of leaders, corruption, unemployment, income inequality and economies that have left behind, especially the most vulnerable.” Shamira Ibrahim, editor of the Africa is a Country portal, points out the importance of recognizing the fragility of the situation in Madagascar as systemic and not unique, since “when we isolate the crises in Sudan, Congo, Haiti and Madagascar as different calamities, we run the risk of minimizing the importance of the unifying colonial logics that contribute to creating fertile ground for calamity and instability.”
The nature of this youth revolution is expressed in one of the common symbols that has flown across three continents: a pirate skull with a hat. In the case of Madagascar, it carries a satrokabelonging to the Betsileos, one of the main ethnic groups in the country. The symbol, taken from the Japanese anime series One Piece, resonates in the youth imagination. In statements reported by NPR, a young 25-year-old Malagasy protester, a follower of the series and who asks to remain anonymous, explains that “it relates and resonates with the protests of Generation Z around the world because its members are trying to end corrupt systems,” adding that “the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, opposes injustice and that is what members of Generation Z around the world fight against.”
A new social contract
The Madagascar Generation Z manifesto includes the fundamental values and principles that govern the movement: equality, solidarity and community, integrity and responsibility, creativity and innovation, competition, respect for nature and sustainability. They are very deep principles and values that go far beyond the image that is presented of a generation only concerned about trivial issues. It puts on the table the political consciousness of a prepared and conscious youth who has had to deal with a complex world of work marked by poor working conditions and strong inflation, the increase in political polarization and the consequences of the climate crisis. For Will Shoki, editor of Africa is a Country, what is happening “represents a resurgence of global systemic consciousness from below, the sense that the injustices of everyday life are linked to the architecture of global capitalism itself.” Shoki affirms that what he witnessed is “the resurgence of a global contradiction that no government, no matter how repressive, can manage indefinitely. The postponed revolution has reappeared, stripped of illusions and mediated through screens, but recognizably the same in essence: an insistent demand for a world that can sustain life, dignity and meaning beyond the market, and for the good of people, not power or profit. As Malagasy activist Ketakandriana Rafitoson summarizes for DW, the young generations are fighting for “a new social contract in which the State serves the people and not the interests of the elite.”
