Description: The anti – government Gen Z protests in Madagascar have severely escalated and caused other organizations to bolster the movement by expressing their support. Madagascar’s largest trade union, Malagasy Trade Union Solidarity as well as opposition leaders such as former President Marc Ravalomanana and Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, have issued strong statements of support to the protest movement and renounced any possibility for forming a wider coalition with sitting President Andry Rajoelina since he dissolved the government. The protests were suspended for a government curfew and self-initiated pause by the demonstrators who cited reasons such as exhaustion and other health problems. President Rajoelina has reinforced dissent, while the state-controlled media outlets are supporting his attempts to resist the pressure to step down from the protests.
Impact: Madagascar’s Gen Z protests are gathering substantial momentum and intensity threatening the stability in the country and the longevity of Rajoelina’s presidency. Opposition figures have thrown their support behind the protesters who are demanding Rajoelina’s resignation and the dissolution of the election commission. Currently the incumbent President shows no signs of reconciliation with the civil movement mobilized to push him out of office and resolve the country’s mounting issues with poverty, dire economic conditions and the absence of elementary services such as water and electricity. The President has evidently doubled down on stifling dissent and cracking down of civil liberties which could additionally mobilize the movement and push the country into a broader form of political and civil crisis.