Lifting sanctions against Madagascar: the other French diplomacy in action

The French diplomacy has proved rather powerless against the SADC and the AU in the Malagasy crisis settlement. The Organization of French speaking Country’s position isn’t helping either, for being standing against the HAT’s unilaterally led electoral processes. Now that the state diplomacy failed, here comes the unofficial one led by French nationals apparently in love with Madagascar.

MADAGASCAR DEVELOPMENT PLUS condemns the international community’s “stupid” sanctions (dixit) imposed to the country’s dictating power. The association is calling upon economic sanctions to be lifted for being convinced that they are hurting the population’s vulnerable layer far more than the targeted political leaders themselves. To this end, the association is intending to address several international figures, Nicolas Sarkozy amongst the others. France’s temporary position on top of the G-20 might be helping, who knows.

For the time being, the Organization of French speaking Countries and its resolutions of Montreux are the primary target: enforcing recognition for the HAT’s plan and strategy in the other African countries in which putsches have taken place. Margie Sudre, the former State Secretary for Cooperation, optimistically expects for the occasion to address the Organization of French speaking Countries before long, relying on her past diplomatic connections with the former Senegalese president Abdu Diuf, as she was part of the French Juppe government.

Although supporting the HAT’s propaganda, the association MADAGASCAR DEVELOPPEMENT PLUS is pretending to display Madagascar’s reality. How tricky it might find it to drive the rest of the world to forget the year 2009’s putsch, and to believe that the unilaterally led electoral processes could ever be free, transparent and democratic! But still, the association is denying being byous and denouncing the foreign interference.

Some of the association’s members already stated their position concerning the Malagasy crisis. The previously suggested “wisemen’s council” intended to manage the transition and the national reconciliation has been capitalized in the “Raiamandreny mijoro”, very supportive of the HAT, and potentially turned into an institution by Andry Rajoelina. The so named Council was supposed to be made of Malagasy former presidents and prime ministers. The French vision is different.

For being stranded by the single European position, France is trying to skirt around through decentralized cooperation. The MADAGASCAR DEVELOPPEMENT PLUS association proudly demonstrated its projects directly influencing the population’s social life, as its “evidence of a will to help the Malagasy people”. It will equally have to make believe that it’s not connected to French interests.