The army of former rebels straining to defend its “neutrality”

Most soldiers currently in charge under Andry Rajoelina had rebelled for him in March 2009. They actively contributed to the Coup which forced Marc Ravalomanana out into exile. 

The army has never ever been being neutral within the Malagasy crisis. On March 16th, 2009, some 200 soldiers assaulted the presidential palace in Ambohitsorohitra. On the next day, the very same militaries empowered Andry Rajoelina as Transitional leader in Madagascar. 

The recent rebels are finding it hard to pledge neutrality nowadays. The army, their army probably was the single institution to have refrained from challenging Andry Rajoelina in face of the bogged down situation. For recognizing the critical situation after a 16 months  long crisis, they finally started to speak by the beginning of April. The military leaders asked Andry Rajoelina to make his roadmap to the end of the crisis clear and public. Somehow this first “questioning” lost a little bit of its relevance because of the resumption of talks between the political mobilities. 

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Malagasy army has been remaining deeply polarized. The upper hand has, for the time being, been left to Andry Rajoelina’s supporters. Andry Rajoelina can owe them his position on top of the High Authority of  Transition to the armed forces and exclusively to the armed forces, despite his appalling balance sheet. And only thanks to her. In the street, not many people is keen on keeping this kind of “president” stemming from who knows where.