Movement for Proletarian Power
소민 권력 투사
A left-wing Malagasy party founded on 27 December 1972 by Manandafy Rakotonirina. It began as a left-wing opposition to the military regime that had taken power that year, but later converted to liberalism and renamed itself the Movement for the Progress of Madagascar; the abbreviation MFM covers both names.
In depth
Rakotonirina, a socialist professor of agronomy, had called within Monja Jaona's MONIMA for the involvement of the proletariat of Antananarivo; arrested in April 1971, he helped organise the May 1972 protests against President Tsiranana. On 27 December of that year he founded this party with Rakotonirainy Germain, and in May 1973 he was arrested again in connection with a commemoration of May 1972.
Although the party did not actively oppose Didier Ratsiraka's regime when it came to power in 1975, Ratsiraka dissolved it in September 1976 and kept Rakotonirina under house arrest until January 1977. The party was then re-formed within the ruling National Front for the Defence of the Revolution, and Rakotonirina became a member of the Supreme Council of the Revolution, heading its Economic Commission. He came second to Ratsiraka with just under 20 per cent in the 1989 presidential election, and the party took part in the movement that forced Ratsiraka to give up power in 1991.
The party converted to liberalism and changed its name, and at the Marrakesh congress of 2006 it became an observer member of the Liberal International. In the December 2001 presidential election it backed Marc Ravalomanana and helped persuade him not to accept the first official result but to proclaim himself the winner. Since the National Assembly election of 23 September 2007 it has had no seats.