A French passport that Andry Rajoelina once dismissed as a bureaucratic convenience has become the weapon that formally erased his claim to Madagascar.
The island nation’s new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, signed an order this week revoking the ousted president’s citizenship—a calculated strike that exploits a legal vulnerability Rajoelina’s critics had flagged years ago. Under Malagasy law, acquiring foreign nationality automatically nullifies one’s status as a citizen. The 51-year-old former leader obtained French citizenship a decade back, a move that nearly derailed his 2023 re-election campaign before he managed to defuse the controversy.
His explanation then was straightforward, almost mundane: the passport made life simpler for his children studying in France. Enough voters accepted that rationale to return him to office. But in the ruthless arithmetic of post-coup politics, yesterday’s acceptable explanation becomes today’s disqualification.
Rajoelina’s presidency unraveled not through scandal but through something more elemental—the lights went out, and the taps ran dry. Chronic electricity and water shortages ignited street anger that metastasized into sustained protests. Gen Z Mada, a youth movement energized by similar uprisings that had recently forced change in Nepal, mobilized demonstrations that swelled beyond the government’s capacity to contain them.
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When security forces met protesters with violence rather than negotiation, the crisis deepened. Rajoelina tried the classic playbook of embattled leaders: he fired his energy minister, hoping a sacrificial offering would satisfy public rage. It didn’t. He dissolved his entire cabinet. Still, the crowds demanded his head.
What protesters wanted was dignity—a voluntary resignation that would preserve constitutional order and allow Madagascar to navigate toward fresh elections without bloodshed. Rajoelina wouldn’t give them that. His refusal to step aside transformed a political crisis into an existential question about who actually controlled the country.
The answer came from Colonel Michael Randrianirina, commander of Madagascar’s elite military unit. Last week, he led the forces meant to protect the president in removing him instead. Rajoelina fled, his current whereabouts a mystery he’s keeping for his own protection.
Randrianirina has taken the oath of office and formed a transitional government, pledging elections within two years. Whether that promise holds or becomes another broken commitment in a country weary of instability remains Madagascar’s most pressing question.
For Rajoelina, now stateless in the eyes of his former nation, the irony must sting. The passport he claimed was about his children’s future has severed his own.