Sovereignty according to Andry Rajoelina

Andry Rajoelina wants to remain on top of the Transition, with his Prime minister, Monja Roindefo, whether the former presidents, who are taking part into the Maputo summit, like it or not. The devil with the mediators and their expectations for a more flexible stand from him! 

The young president of the High Authority of Transition didn’t state it as such. However, he slammed all of his Maputo main interlocutors in his speech. 

Rajoelina’s tone is anyway reminding the violence of his speeches on the place of May 13th, as he was exciting the crowd to gather support for his movement, prior to the putsch back in mid-March.  

The speech will hardly be pleasing to Marc Ravalomanana, Albert Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka, the other signatories of the Maputo agreements, but who knows how they are going to react. 

The president of the HAT addressed Marc Ravalomanana, without explicitly naming him, saying that “the people won’t forgive him”.  

Concerning the international community, and particularly the mediators’ group, Andry Rajoelina emphasized that he doesn’t want to give in to the pressure. Extolling his partisans’ desire for sovereignty, the young putschist went as far as boasting that Madagascar can find the means to financially move forward. He naturally carefully kept away from specifying that more of the half of the state budget has so far been supported by foreign financings. 

Normally, the Rajoelina mobility is supposed to let its final decision about the Maputo talks be known on September 3rd. A SADC assessment mission is, then, expected Malagasy soil from September 6.  

The situation seems anyway tenser. The signature of the Maputo agreements had loosened the atmosphere, but the failure of the summit’s second leg seems to drag the country back to the launching pad. Andry Rajoelina adopts a firm tone. The Marc Ravalomanana’s supporter gatherings have resumed. The African Union’s ultimatum of September 16th is on the brink of expiration. The organization is waving new sanctions against the Great Isle if no solution is found before this deadline.