Nothing to Lose: Madagascar’s Gen Z Protesters Push For Change – and Get It
NEED TO KNOW
Nothing to Lose: Madagascar’s Gen Z Protesters Push For Change – and Get It
MADAGASCAR
Rakotoarivao Andritiana Kevin, a 20-year-old Malagasy law student, walks to a public water fountain every day to wait 90 minutes before he can fill his water container – frequent water shortages in Madagascar often leave him going without at home.
He has nowhere to turn to, however, when electrical surges during frequent power cuts damage his appliances and computers, and leave him in the dark.
“Our lives are wrecked,” Kevin told the New York Times. “Everything is falling apart.”
That’s why Kevin has been among the thousands of young people on the Indian Ocean island who have taken part in demonstrations for weeks. These began over these utility shortages but have since morphed into wider protests against the country’s high unemployment rate, cost-of-living, and its breathtaking landscape of corruption.
On Tuesday, the protests brought down the government.
Late Monday, President Andry Rajoelina said in a social media post from an undisclosed location that he had fled the country – with the help of France – in fear for his life after the elite CAPSAT military unit joined the protests over the weekend. He did not resign.
“I was forced to find a safe place to protect my life,” Rajoelina said in his speech broadcast on the president’s official Facebook page. He said he was “on a mission to find solutions” and also dissolved the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, by decree.
Instead, the legislature voted Tuesday to impeach the president, a move that must be confirmed by the Constitutional Court to become valid.
The problem is, the military government that took over the country on Tuesday under the leadership of Col Michael Randrianirina, chief of CAPSAT, said it has suspended the court and all other state institutions except the General Assembly – even as the court confirmed his new status as leader of the country.
“We will form a government and reach consensus,” Randrianirina told reporters in Madagascar, adding that the country would hold elections within the next 18 months to two years.
The CAPSAT chief said Gen Z Mada protesters would be part of the transformation because “the movement was created in the streets so we have to respect their demands.” He added that he and his fellow officers had no choice but to unseat the current regime: “There is no president, there is no government… nothing here works.”
Over the weekend, CAPSAT soldiers posted a video to social media, telling their fellow soldiers, “Let us join forces, military, gendarmes, and police, and refuse to be paid to shoot our friends, our brothers and our sisters.”
The protesters hailed the military takeover, remaining on the streets Tuesday, singing and dancing, joined by civil servants and union leaders. Workers at the state-owned utility company demanded that its CEO resign.
“We’re so happy Andry Rajoelina is finally gone… We will start again,” high-school student Fih Nomensanahary told Reuters.
Inspired by Gen Z protests erupting around the world against governments, the trigger for these demonstrations was the arrest on Sept. 25 of two leading politicians representing the capital, Antananarivo, who had planned protests in their city. Afterward, an online youth movement known as Gen Z Mada organized the marches there, which then spread to other cities across the island and have drawn Malagasy of all ages, underlining frustrations over corruption and living conditions that span generations, say analysts.
Despite its rich natural resources, Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries, with nearly three-quarters of its population of 32 million living below the poverty line. The average annual income in 2025 was $461, almost half of what it was in 1960 when it became independent from France, a decline blamed on corruption.
“We’re still struggling,” Heritiana Rafanomezantsoa, a protester in Antananarivo, told Agence France-Presse. “The problem is the system. Our lives haven’t improved since we gained independence from France.”
The government, however, had reacted harshly to the protests: It deployed tear gas and live rounds against demonstrators, killing at least 22 people and injuring hundreds more.
Still, in late September, Rajoelina fired all his cabinet ministers in a bid to appease protesters and stop the unrest, the worst since his reelection in 2023 in a vote critics say was marred by fraud, and which the opposition boycotted.
The move, however, failed to satisfy the demonstrators. The president refused to step down, instead describing the protests as an attempted coup.
“(The protesters) have been exploited to provoke a coup,” said Rajoelina, a former DJ, who took power himself in a CAPSAT-backed coup in 2009. “Countries and agencies paid for this movement to get me out, not through elections, but for profit…”
At the same time, Rajoelina, since early October, had been mobilizing thousands of his supporters in counter-protests that have been far smaller and, as anti-government protesters pointed out, allowed to gather.
Supporters of the government say all is fine in the country. “We have water, we have electricity, it works very well,” one of the president’s supporters told Africanews, adding that they just wanted life to return to normal.
Meanwhile, last week, Rajoelina appointed army Gen. Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo as the new prime minister. The decision was seen as a significant militarization of the government and an effort by the president to secure the army’s support, the BBC wrote.
Gen Z protesters, however, rejected Zafisambo’s appointment: In addition to Rajoelina’s resignation, they wanted the dissolution of parliament, the replacement of constitutional court judges and electoral commission members, and a crackdown on corruption, including investigations into the president and top businessmen close to him.
Now, analysts say his fate is likely to echo that of his predecessor, Marc Ravalomanana, who was ousted by protesters in 2009.
“He has left the country and doesn’t have a government in place because he dismissed it a week ago – and he doesn’t have the support of the legislature, the army, or his people,” said Luke Freeman of the University College London in an interview with France 24.
“It will be difficult for him to come back from this,” he added. “The challenge for Gen Z now is to stay part of the conversation, now that the army and the politicians are taking the lead in moving (the country) forward. They don’t want a situation where all of their efforts get taken over by the old guard whom they want to see replaced, within the old system that they want overthrown.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
UK Police Apologize to Pro-Palestine Demonstrator Even as the Government Cracks Down on Protests
UNITED KINGDOM
A protester in the United Kingdom who was threatened with arrest under the Terrorism Act for waving a Palestine flag and calling for the liberation of Gaza received an apology from police in the southeastern region of Kent, even as the government moves to limit protests in the country, the Guardian reported.
Kent police will also pay damages and cover legal costs for the protester, Laura Murton, following an incident on July 14 in Canterbury when armed officers told the woman her protest expressed support for Palestine Action – a group that had been banned earlier that month and designated as a terrorist organization by the British government.
In the letter, the police admitted to Murton that her right to free speech had been violated and that officers had breached national counter-terrorism policing guidance.
Officers had told Murton they were going to arrest her unless she gave them her name and address, which she reluctantly provided. The letter also admitted the unlawful processing of her data, which will now be deleted.
Meanwhile, her lawyer said this case marks the first time a chief constable issued an apology and paid damages over unlawful policing in relation to Palestine Action.
Murton’s treatment during the protest highlights the growing concerns raised by human rights groups over the UK government’s moves to curb the right to protest.
On Oct. 5, the government announced new rules that give police broader powers to target repeat demonstrations and even ban protests outright.
As a result, senior officers would be able to consider the ‘cumulative impact’ of previous protest activity: That means police will have the authority to tell organizers of a demonstration to move elsewhere if a protest has been held at the same site for multiple weeks and has created repeated disorder. Those who violate orders to move risk arrest and prosecution.
The new rules follow an incident on Oct. 2 in which two people were killed at a Manchester synagogue, the Conversation noted. After the attack, pro-Palestine groups were asked to reconsider planned protests and “respect the grief of British Jews.” Organizers, however, did not cancel their events, arguing that canceling peaceful marches would “let terror win.”
Amnesty International said that the government is restricting the “basic human right” of assembly. The organization pointed to recent anti-protest bills passed by the government as an example of the state’s efforts to curb peaceful dissent in the country.
Indonesian Lawmakers Get More Money Following Mass Protests Over Their Perks
INDONESIA
A new raise in the allowance for Indonesian lawmakers is sparking fresh anger in Indonesia, just weeks after mass protests over excessive perks for legislators swept the Southeast Asian archipelago, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Lawmakers will now receive $42,400 in recess allowances, which is almost double the previous amount of $24,000.
The money is intended to support lawmakers in their official duties during parliamentary recess, when lawmakers carry out tasks like visiting their electoral districts and collecting feedback from residents. Indonesia’s 580 parliamentarians take about five recesses per year.
In August, people protested a $3,000 monthly housing allowance, nearly 10 times the minimum wage in Jakarta. The allowance was later cut in a bid to quell unrest as the protests morphed into wider and violent demonstrations over corruption and economic inequality in the region’s largest economy.
The introduction of the new recess allowance increase, in effect since the start of the latest break on Oct. 3, has renewed anger in the country.
“It’s like Indonesians have been pranked,” Lucius Karus from Formappi, a non-profit parliamentary watchdog, told the BBC. “We were satisfied by the abolition of the housing allowance… but, in fact, another fantastic allowance has appeared.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad defended the allowance, saying the prior amount was based on the 2019-2024 period and did not take into account inflation, Reuters wrote.
Dasco, who is also a senior politician in President Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra party, added that parliament was working on a digital reporting app to ensure transparency on how the allowances are spent, which the public would also be able to access.
Lawmakers’ allowances on top of regular salaries to cover official duties are common in other countries.
Netherlands Invokes Rare Emergency Law to Control Chinese Chipmaker
NETHERLANDS
The Dutch government seized control of Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, headquartered in the Netherlands, enacting a rarely used emergency law to address risks to Dutch and European economic security caused by possible asset and technology transfer to China, Euronews reported.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced late Sunday the invocation of the Goods Availability Act, which allows the state to secure access to critical goods and production during emergencies or when vital skills are at risk.
The law also allows the state to block or reverse company decisions.
The move is intended to prevent goods produced by Nexperia, meaning finished and semi-finished products, from becoming unavailable in an emergency and to ensure essential technical expertise remains in Europe, according to a statement by Dutch officials.
Dutch authorities did not share detailed accusations but cited serious governance concerns and the worry that Europe will be shut out of essential technology and capabilities, hinting at fears of tech leakage where property and know-how are transferred to China, Politico noted.
Nexperia, a major supplier of power and signal chips used in autos and electronics, is headquartered in the eastern Dutch city of Nijmegen and has additional subsidiaries across the world. It is owned by China’s Wingtech through its Yucheng Holding vehicle.
The company said its control rights at Nexperia were “temporarily restricted,” but added that it maintained the economic benefits of ownership. Wingtech criticized the Dutch intervention as “an act of excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias, not by fact-based risk assessment,” and added it had appealed to the Chinese government for help.
It also indicated the intention of pursuing legal avenues.
The decision highlights a broader European trend of using national security measures to oversee ownership and decision-making in critical tech supply chains. It also marks the latest flashpoint in Western attempts to protect semiconductor industries amid intensifying US-European Union export controls and investment screening aimed at China.
In 2022, the United Kingdom ordered Nexperia to sell its chip-manufacturing plant in Wales over national security concerns.
DISCOVERIES
A Taste For Bigger Things
Leeches have long had a reputation for being the bloodsuckers of the animal kingdom. But a newly discovered fossil from Wisconsin suggests their ancient ancestors had a wider palate.
A research team recently uncovered the world’s first known fossilized leech, preserved for some 430 million years in a rare geological formation known as the Waukesha Biota.
The find pushes back the origins of the species by at least 200 million years, showing that leeches existed long before the rise of dinosaurs – and that their earliest relatives may have thrived in the sea rather than on land.
“This is the only body fossil we’ve ever found of this entire group,” Karma Nanglu, co-author of a new study, wrote in a statement.
The ancient specimen had a large tail sucker and a segmented, teardrop-shaped body, which are also found in modern leeches.
However, this prehistoric creature lacked the forward sucker used by many of today’s species to pierce skin and draw blood. The team believes this absence hints that early leeches weren’t blood-feeders at all.
“Blood-feeding takes a lot of specialized machinery,” Nanglu noted. “Anticoagulants, mouthparts, and digestive enzymes are complex adaptations.”
Instead, Naglu proposed that early leeches swallowed small, soft-bodied marine invertebrates – or possibly sucked their bodily fluids.
Modern leeches can be found everywhere and they have different feeding behaviors that range from scavenging to parasitic blood sucking.
The discovery is significant because finding their fossils is nearly impossible: Leeches lack bones or shells that would make it easier to fossilize, explained Smithsonian Magazine.
The authors added that the new study can help better understand the origin of these soft-bodied bloodsuckers.
“We don’t know nearly as much as we think we do,” Nanglu said. “This paper is a reminder that the tree of life has deep roots, and we’re just beginning to map them.”