madam president i speak on behalf of the socialist group and as the party of european socialists <unk> rapporteur on the economic partnership agreement epa with the group of southern african countries that included madagascar
in april we overwhelmingly approved that economic partnership agreement with reservations about the situation in zimbabwe
if we were debating that epa today we would have to enter our reservations regarding madagascar
yet only fifteen years ago there seems to have been the potential for madagascar to be so different
i can remember in nineteen ninety-three the visit of the then newly elected president albert zafy
but of course by nineteen ninety-six he had been impeached for corruption and the abuse of power
since then madagascar has been troubled by unstable governments with threats of secession and impeachment punctuating a rough politics
now we have a situation an army coup d état partly triggered by a plan by the former government to lease one million acres of land in the south of the country to a korean firm for intensive farming when a substantial majority of the population live on less than one euro a day
this unconstitutional change of government is a serious setback for democratisation
we welcome the fact that the un has appealed for nearly usd thirty-six million worth of humanitarian aid anticipating the food shortages that will result later this year from the current political events in madagascar but we strongly condemn the coup d état and all attempts to seize power by undemocratic means
we call for the immediate restoration of the legal and constitutional order in the country and ask all malagasy parties to comply fully with the provisions of the constitution
we want to see the suspension of the national assembly and senate lifted and urge that the mandates and immunities of parliamentarians be respected
but this is only going to happen if the international community can work together to step up its efforts and exercise pressure to end the political violence and the political impasse in that country
