A poor image to be compensated for the new president

A moderated investiture
This was supposed to become the newly elected president’s glory day . The investiture ceremony also serves as popularity index in Antananarivo city. Unfortunately for him, the sparsely occupied stands in the stadium Mahamasina during the inauguration of the new President will go down as a second to none fact in history. In contrast to this, the presidential side dedicated to officials was full to the edge. Organizational blunders did visibly not go away. Hery Rajaonarimampianina personally made up for this poor start by expressing his will to embrace appeasement and openness in his speech.
The fact that his speech’s French version happened to be riddled with phases from Nicolas Sarkozy, did not go unnoticed. Most of them were addressing the president’ shared emotions. This blunder would be blamed on certain French friend commissioned with the translation of Hery Rajaonarimampianina’ composed speech. Wee to late. The damages reach much further than the simple plagiarism, since Andry Rajoelina did exactly the same back in 2009 as he copied cut the Luxembourgian Minister’ speech. The lesson was not memorized, as it seems.

A deadly attack
On the evening of January 25th, the celebrations went awry. A hand grenade attack claimed one fatality and fifty wounded people, including a dozen of them seriously wounded. A 2 years old boy lost his life by then and his older brother survived a little longer, only to die a few days later. ” I condemn with all of my strength what appears to be a terrorist act ,” said the new Head of State .
It is without a doubt a politically motivated attack, but to which end? Does the new president Hery Rajaonarimampianina’s pledge of openness towards the transition’s former opponents in exchange of acknowledgement really create so many concerns? Jean Louis Robinson attending his former electoral opponent taking office in the stadium of Mahamasina was a strong political message as a matter of fact. The attack was most likely an attempt to resurrect conflicts between both former rivals, to not avail.

Media groups denying him the front page
Following the inauguration of the elected President, the national television channel kept mourning the former transitional leader’s departure. A theatrically directed ceremony staged a formidable presidential family , supporters and fans in tears, a long gratitude speech … the personality cult like show spoiled Hery Rajaonarimampianina’s day of glory to a certain extent.
During the power transfer show, the President had to bear a choir of artists standing right behind him and chanting a song dedicated to Andry Rajoelina. Most unpleasant was the huge key offered to him as a symbol of power. What on earth could a president do with a key? he is no mayor, is he? But then, once again, what could a president expect more from a mayor self proclaimed president but a key after all?

Would Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his staff long for anything but normal coverage from national channels? It would seem so, since the new President’s first actions on the ground were reported in a simple and pragmatic way, in contrast to the long sagas depicting Andry Rajoelina’s heroic contributions at the openning of the Andohatapenaka Hospital for example. The head of the Ravalomanana political sphere standing beside the President in Tulear clearly particularly captured the focus. Whenever a president visits an agricultural infrastructure, the people is generally used to find a Minister of Agriculture beside him, is it not?