2025 Gen Z protests, impeachment, and transitional government
In 2025 Rajoelina faced significant unrest that began on September 25 and continued into October. Led by the Generation Z cohort, Malagasy citizens initially demonstrated against the chronic shortages of power and water in the country. They soon broadened their concerns to include other grievances, such as dissatisfaction with overall living conditions, and called for Rajoelina to step down. Some of the demonstrations turned violent, with police using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protestors, and led to deaths and injuries. Rajoelina’s responses to the crisis included dissolving the government in late September and replacing the prime minister in October, but the unrest continued. The situation began to escalate on October 11, when the elite CAPSAT military unit announced it would refuse to fire on protesters, implored other security forces to do the same, and joined in the protests.
Two days later, Rajoelina delivered an address via the presidential Facebook page. He said his life had been threatened and he was sheltering in a safe location, but he did not say where, and declined to offer his resignation. There were reports that he had fled the country, although that did not stop him from attempting to maintain his presidential authority. On October 14, in the face of a looming impeachment vote in the National Assembly, Rajoelina announced he was dissolving the legislative body. However, the National Assembly ignored his proclamation, claiming it did not meet legal requirements, and voted 130–0 (with one blank ballot) to impeach him. Immediately following the vote, Col. Michael Randrianirina of CAPSAT declared that the military had taken power and suspended most of the country’s democratic institutions. Madagascar’s High Constitutional Court asked Randrianirina to temporarily serve as president and organize new elections within 60 days, but he said that he and the military would govern as part of a transitional administration for up to two years, and would organize a constitutional referendum as well as elections. He also pledged to include Gen Z in the transition process.
The 2025 Gen Z protests in Madagascar are part of a global trend of youth-led mobilization that began in the 2020s. For an examination of the underlying factors that have motivated this generation to act as well as to learn more about other countries that have experienced similar protests, click here to read about Generation Z protests.
Randrianirina was officially inaugurated as president on October 17 and three days later named Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo as the new prime minister. Cabinet ministers for the transitional government were appointed by the end of the month; most of the portfolios were held by civilians. One of Rajaonarivelo’s early acts as prime minister was to revoke Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality, decreeing that Rajoelina’s acceptance of French nationality in 2014 violated Madagascar’s nationality code.