Madagascar’s protests fan anger

PLACARDS and slogans against France that surfaced in demonstrations against impeached President Andry Rajoelina this week exposed deep resentment against the former colonial power.

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“France out’, “Rajoelina and Macron out’, said banners after French media reported that the president had fled on a French military plane as an army unit threw its weight behind protesters calling for his resignation.

“They are still colonising us even though we are supposed to be independent,” said Koloina Andrianina Rakotomavonirina, a 26-year-old engineer.

“Tts unfair that they intervene in such a matter,’ she said at a demonstration in central Antananarivo.

With the whereabouts of the 51-year-old president unknown, the national assembly impeached him on Tuesday for desertion of duty, paving the way for a military unit called CAP-SAT to seize power.

Negative perception about France was not surprising considering its history, Paris-based political scientist Christiane Rafidinarivo said.

Its colonisation of the Indian Ocean island until independence in 1960 was marked by several atrocities, including the bloody repression by French forces of a 1947 uprising which claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“France represents colonialism,” Rafidinarivo said. “This perception runs through public opinion and is triggered depending on current events.”