The Malagasy Revolutionary Party, better known by its Malagasy

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

AREMA (from ), is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It was the

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

of the

Democratic Republic of Madagascar The Democratic Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblika Demokratika Malagasy, french: République démocratique de Madagascar) was a socialist state that existed on the island of Madagascar from 1975 to 1992. History Establishment (1975) Di ...

, a

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

one-party A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a Sovereign state, sovereign State (polity), state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The ...

, from 1976 to 1992.

Name

"AREMA" was originally an acronym derived from the party's Malagasy and French names: () in Malagasy and () in French. Sometime around 2001, the party changed its Malagasy name to () and its French name to (). Although the acronym "AREMA" was maintained in both Malagasy and French, the meaning of the party's name differed between the two languages. The party later changed its French name to , the acronym "AREMA" now also applying to the party's English name, Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar. In 2020 the party adopted the Malagasy name () for all its official publications, including those in French.

History

The party was founded on 30 March 1976 as the Vanguard of the Malagasy Revolution, the main political alliance of president

Didier Ratsiraka Didier Ignace Ratsiraka (; 4 November 1936 – 28 March 2021) was a Malagasy people, Malagasy politician and Madagascar Navy, naval officer who was President of Madagascar from 1975 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2002. At the time of his death, he was ...

. It held the majority of seats in the parliament until the fall of the Ratsiraka regime in 1991. AREMA had 455,000 registered members in 1995. In the elections to the Senate held on 18 March 2001, AREMA won 49 of the 60 elected seats. In the

parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

held on 15 December 2002, AREMA won 4.9% of the popular vote and 3 out of 160 seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

, all three in

Toamasina Province The Toamasina Province is a former province of Madagascar with an area of 71,911 km². It had a population of 2,855,600 (2004). Its capital was Toamasina, the most important seaport of the country. The province was also known as Tamatave Provi ...

. Pierrot Rajaonarivelo was elected national secretary at a party congress on 29 November 1997. He has been exiled in France since 2002 and has been convicted and sentenced ''in absentia''. Ramaholimasy holds the position while Rajaonarivelo is out of the country. Currently, AREMA is divided into two antagonistic factions: those behind Rajaonarivelo and those who claim to be supported by the party founder, Ratsiraka. Rajaonarivelo sought to run in the December 2006 presidential election, but was not allowed to enter the country. The Ratsiraka faction of the party chose not to participate in the September 2007 parliamentary election, while the Rajaonarivelo faction chose to participate. The Ratsiraka faction sought to prevent the Rajaonarivelo faction's participation, but on 23 August the High Constitutional Court ruled that the Rajaonarivelo faction could participate. AREMA did not win any seats in the election. AREMA's current national secretary, Simon Pierre, and six deputy national secretaries were elected during the party congress on 12 June 2013.

Ideology

As the ruling party of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar, AREMA espoused

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and adhered to

Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various co ...

and

scientific socialism Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book ''What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...

. The party maintained close relations with other

communist parties A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

around the world, particularly the

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of ...

. Ratsiraka expressed strong sympathies and support for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

). AREMA hosted the International Scientific Seminar on the ''

Juche ''Juche'' ( ; ), officially the ''Juche'' idea (), is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea. North Korean sources attribute its conceptualization to Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and ...

'' Idea in

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

from 28 to 30 September 1976. Many prominent party and government officials, public figures, representatives of revolutionary and progressive organizations, scientists and journalists from more than fifty countries attended. After the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and the country's adoption of a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...

, AREMA began to move towards a more moderate left position. The party currently describes itself as "a humanist and ecological social democratic party". The stated goals of the party are to "build healthy and solid foundations for the construction of a social democracy which guarantees sustained and sustainable growth", and to "consolidate and maintain the independence of Madagascar and the freedom of the Malagasy people, for a just and equitable nation".

Election results

Presidential elections

National Assembly elections

References

{{Authority control 1976 establishments in Madagascar Green political parties Humanist parties Malagasy nationalism Parties of one-party systems Political parties established in 1976 Political parties in Madagascar Social democratic parties in Africa Socialism in Madagascar