Do we like them?Do we like Andry Rajoelina?
Our score: 4 out of 10. No harmful words of his own turned up, but the UN-reported crackdown, a jailed critic and an unaffordable showpiece project outweigh the thin good.
Rajoelina started out as a DJ and businessman, nicknamed TGV after the French bullet train. He turned the initials into a youth movement, Tanora Gasy Vonona, and won the Antananarivo mayoralty in December 2007 with 63 per cent. When authorities shut his TV network after it aired an interview with an ex-president, he went to war with the government.
In 2009, aged just 34 and too young to run for president, he declared himself head of a rival government to push President Marc Ravalomanana out. He complained then about shrinking freedoms. The irony is that in April 2020 Amnesty reported a newspaper publishing director, from a paper seen as close to the opposition, was jailed pre-trial under his government, charged with spreading fake news and inciting hatred against him over an article.
On the harm test, we found no words of his own about LGBTQ+ people, women or trans rights, good or bad, and that is a genuine gap. What is on the record is the 2025 unrest. The UN said at least 22 people died and more than 100 were hurt, blamed security forces for some deaths, and described tear gas, beatings and live ammunition. Authorities had not announced their own toll at that point.
His 2023 re-election was shaky. Ten of the 12 rival candidates boycotted it, calling it a farce, and turnout was just over 46 per cent. He took 58.95 per cent and said the people had chosen the path of continuity and stability. Where you land depends on whether you read a boycott as sour grapes or as a warning sign.
The end came fast in October 2025. He said he left the country after serious threats against his life, and accused the National Assembly of working with the military to remove him. He tried to dissolve the Assembly, but lawmakers impeached him anyway. Col. Michael Randrianirina, who now leads, told France 24 he wants him tried for alleged crimes including the shooting of demonstrators: “Our wish is to try him in Madagascar.” No trial of Rajoelina has been reported.
Since then, the fallout has kept landing. In September 2026 his ally and former Senate president Richard Ravalomanana got 10 years for complicity in murder over the crackdown, which he denies and will appeal. Meanwhile the cable car Rajoelina called a landmark cost about $173 million, ran for only a few weeks, and charged fares six to eight times a minibus fare while residents complained about water and power.