At first we didn’t really care about politics. We just wanted the electricity cuts to stop. But when the government opened fire when we were just exercising a constitutionally guaranteed right, we realised there was a big problem in the way power works and started questioning what kind of democracy this really was.

Out of frustration, young people started asking about their place in politics. Old people occupy all the important positions in government and decide on behalf of young people, who are just listeners. The buzzwords were ‘system change’. How do we change a system that gives privilege to the government, allowing corruption and bad governance? So the trigger was economic but, following the violence, the protests also became political.

These protests were different from others in the past in that they weren’t led by a political party and didn’t really have one leader. They were totally youth-led. Protesters spontaneously decided to march from the university to the Place du 13 Mai, a location that’s significant because it was the site of the first major protests in Madagascar’s history. There was a committee of young people in Antananarivo, the capital, that merely articulated the will expressed by the protesters.

If someone says they are the leader of Gen Z, they are lying. The Gen Z movement doesn’t have a leader. It only has representatives. After the protest, Gen Z representatives registered formally with the state, so now there’s a formal organisation of Gen Z Madagascar. Currently, there’s one committee per region across the country and these committees decide what they will do in their area.

Generally, Malagasy young people don’t trust political institutions. But we do trust universities and our professors, who are severely underpaid but still deliver teaching. They produce knowledge and understand what young people are going through. These protests were organised by people from universities.

We also work with civil society organisations, not because we fully trust them all, but because there’s a common interest, so we can do some work together. Right now there’s a group of civil society organisations that meets with Gen Z at least twice a week to check what the strategy is and whether the government is following the guidelines they have provided.

During the protests, the government first tried to bribe Gen Z movement representatives, promising a huge amount of money if the protest stopped. When they refused, they threatened them with imprisonment. They also accused protesters of attempting a coup. So protesters generally used pseudonyms so as not to be recognised. That’s why at the time I didn’t know who protesters’ representatives really were. I knew the people, but not their real identities.

We then believed the new government would bring change, and started showing our faces. However, currently, young people are still afraid of arbitrary repression, given that some of their actions are sometimes criminalised even though they don’t have any intent to harm society.

So, we’re afraid of the repression and there’s not enough support. That’s one of the reasons I reached out to CIVICUS.

We still have power cuts, but not for as long as before. That’s something. The government also pays some attention to young people, and it has offered some funding to young people for small projects.

But the protests have largely failed to achieve change. There are new people, new faces, but nepotism is still there and young people are still underestimated and insufficiently supported. Old habits prevail. When we went to the presidential palace with our youth empowerment project, we queued the entire day and at the end were told the president couldn’t receive us. But during the day, I saw politicians walk in without queuing. I hope this changes, but I don’t have high hopes.

Right now, Gen Z Madagascar is not working anonymously, but silently, on platforms that cannot be tracked, so as to express opinions freely. Personally, we don’t want to try to remove the government but to keep it accountable for its promises, because we don’t want it to repeat the same practices as the former government, deviating from the change we fought for.

That said, the movement has drafted a charter that defines what good citizenship looks like, including respecting rights, refusing corruption and promoting good governance. We want government officials to sign it. A constitutional project is also underway. There is a digital platform called Konstitution’Nakà, a space where people, including in rural areas, can consult the draft constitution and propose articles so it’s truly inclusive.

Gen Z Madagascar’s representatives are meeting with representatives of international organisations such as the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme to request their support so the government understands what we need.

We don’t really hope for continuing protests. Ours is a poor country and when there’s a long protest people can’t go to work, and when you can’t work, you don’t eat. People can take it for one day, two days, one week, but then they have to go back to work. This is the reality of being poor. We cannot ask people to protest every day. Without taking to the streets, we continue our work through social media as digital activists.

What we do hope for is a real discussion that involves young people and a government that gives young people decision-making power instead of just listening and then deciding without us. We need a bottom-up approach. The government shouldn’t forget that it’s in power thanks to young people. And they should not view us as criminals. Young people protested because they want Madagascar to change.