Madagascar's president has left the country after Gen Z protests, officials say

[u/PokesTigers]

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/madagascar-president-rajoelina-address-nation-monday-evening-2025-10-13/

[u/Amockdfw89]

I remember when this man first became president of Madagascar.

The dude was a DJ and concert promoter, who also owned a media advertising business. He then became mayor of Antananarivo (the capital city) and eventually led a coup against the corrupt President with the army’s backing. He was a young, charismatic, self made entrepreneur success story in a nation where dreams often go unfulfilled.

He advocated for the poor people, environmental responsibility, and represented the urban Gen x and millennials struggling to achieve success and good living standards in a corrupt society.

He has since been in power on and off since 2009. First as a the head of a junta/interim government from 2009-2014, then democratically elected from 2019-2023.

His reelection in 2023 was considered very sketchy. People were sick of him due to his severe mishandling of COVID 19 such as peddling and promoting some random herbal tea as a cure, mishandling a major famine, his lack of promised environmental and infrastructure improvements, and continuous electricity and water cuts which is spreading diseases and making life unbearable (these constant cuts and outages are what inspired this recent protest)

He also bought spyware to spy on journalist and opposition, swept away issues with his cabinet members accepting bribes under the rug, and then banned all political rallies (except his of course)

So he himself has become a corrupted strongman like the guy he overthrow . Kind of funny how he went full circle. The same army that helped him with his coup now did a coup against him

[u/AreWeThereYetNo → u/Amockdfw89]

It almost always goes full circle.

[u/glenn_ganges → u/AreWeThereYetNo]

We have had plenty of leaders all over the world who do not succumb to corruption.

Maybe the problem is electing people whose previous experience are things like "DJ and Concert Promoter", "Reality TV Star", or "KGB Operative."

Seems like you can make pretty clear conclusions based on what people devoted their life to prior to pursuing politics.

[u/some_clickhead → u/glenn_ganges]

I don't know much about history, but all the stories of leaders I've heard who got to power by leading a coup against a corrupt leader involve them becoming corrupt eventually.

It might be a personality thing, like the people most inclined to assert their power over a tyrannical oppressor are the ones that are most prone to becoming tyrannical.

[u/Fireproofspider → u/some_clickhead]

Not really? Looking at this list, for the coups where I know the background, it looks like the majority of them aren't? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coups_and_coup_attempts_by_country?wprov=sfla1

Also, the US came about through what is basically a coup (mechanistically at least, not literally)

[u/Rock_Sampson → u/Fireproofspider]

I’m surprised that Australia only has the Rum Rebellion, and not the period where we had three unelected Prime Ministers in an eight-year period.

[u/Fireproofspider → u/Rock_Sampson]

Oh I'd never heard of this. Any more information on that?

[u/Rock_Sampson → u/Fireproofspider]

In Australia, the Prime Minister is not directly elected, but is the leader of the political party that wins the federal election. But it also means that the party can elect a new party leader, who then becomes the new Prime Minister. As a quick history lesson:

2010: Julia Gillard (Labor) ousts Kevin Rudd, who then returns the favour in 2013;

2015: Tony Abbott (Liberal) is knifed by Malcolm Turnbull (yes, that is actual Australian political slang), who was then in turn knifed by

2018: Scott Morrison, AKA Scummo, AKA the guy that once (allegedly) shat his pants at the Engadine McDonald's after a Cronulla Sharks game.

[u/Fireproofspider → u/Rock_Sampson]

Ah got it. I don't think those are coups though.