# Madagascar’s interim president dissolves cabinet five months into rule
Event date: 2026-03-10
Madagascar’s interim president and military leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, dissolved the entire cabinet on March 10, 2026, and removed Prime Minister Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo from office, according to the supplied DW report. The move came only five months after Randrianirina took power, making it a major shake-up inside a transitional government that had already been under scrutiny for its legitimacy and direction.
The report says the presidential spokesperson announced that the government was suspended from its duties and that a new prime minister would be appointed shortly. No reason was given for the dismissal. That absence of explanation is itself politically meaningful, because it leaves the public to infer that tensions inside the transition or problems with governance may have driven the decision.
Randrianirina came to power after youth-led protests against the former government and after President Andry Rajoelina fled the country last October. The source says he chose Rajaonarivelo, a private-sector businessman, as prime minister after taking power. The now-dismissed cabinet was sworn in only on October 28 and included civilians, military figures and critics of Rajoelina.
The background matters because Randrianirina has tried to frame his rule as a constitutional “refoundation” rather than a coup. He says the Constitutional Court transferred power to him and that the country is in a two-year transition. He had previously announced constitutional consultations through 2026 and a presidential election in the last quarter of 2027. The cabinet dissolution therefore raises questions about how stable that transition actually is.
The report also places the announcement in an international setting. Randrianirina had recently traveled to Russia and France, describing a “new era of cooperation” in Moscow and a “renewed” but balanced partnership with Paris. Those visits showed he wanted to establish himself abroad while trying to manage domestic unrest at home. The sudden dismissal of his government suggests that external signaling has not resolved the pressure inside Madagascar’s politics.
The move landed just hours before the African Union Peace and Security Council was scheduled to meet on Madagascar. That timing suggests the country’s political path remains highly watched by regional bodies. With the cabinet dissolved, the interim presidency must now show that it can produce a functioning replacement rather than simply reset the same instability under a new label.
That uncertainty is what makes the move politically awkward. Randrianirina has tried to present himself as the head of a transition rather than a coup leader, yet dissolving a cabinet without explanation reinforces the sense that the system is still governed by improvisation. The coming appointment of a new prime minister will therefore be read less as a routine reshuffle than as a test of whether the interim administration can still credibly claim control.
With no explanation offered, the dismissal may be read as a sign that the transition is still unstable beneath the surface. The public will now watch whether the promised replacement can restore momentum or whether the government’s sudden reset simply deepens doubts about the interim project itself.
