Madagascar's democratic image continues to deteriorate. The island nation now ranks among countries on an "autocratization" trajectory. This is the main conclusion of the Democracy Report 2026, published by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The diagnosis is unequivocal. The study, conducted annually by the V-Dem Institute, classifies Madagascar among "electoral autocracies" and identifies 2022 as the starting point of democratic decline in the country. Madagascar appears this year among ten new countries officially identified as entering an "autocratization process," according to the study by this center affiliated with the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. V-Dem researchers note that the country was already on their watchlist published in 2025, before the most recent data definitively confirmed this trend. Alongside Madagascar are notably the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Cambodia, Kuwait, and Croatia. The report emphasizes that sub-Saharan Africa now concentrates the largest number of countries experiencing democratic decline. Of the 51 states in the region, twelve—nearly a quarter—are considered "autocratizers" in 2025: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Conversely, only seven countries show a democratization trajectory: Benin, Botswana, Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zambia. The report also highlights several concerning indicators regarding Madagascar. Experts observe deterioration in freedom of association, marked by increased government control over the creation and dissolution of civil society organizations. Madagascar is cited among twenty-three countries where this trend is intensifying. Electoral organization conditions also raise concerns. V-Dem notes a decrease in electoral integrity, particularly through declining standards of freedom and fairness in elections. Madagascar ranks among twenty countries where these indicators have deteriorated in recent years, alongside Cambodia and Nicaragua, according to the study. The report further emphasizes that intimidation practices linked to electoral processes are increasing in several states worldwide. The global ranking of the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) confirms this trend. Madagascar ranks 113th out of 179 countries, far behind the best-rated democracies: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Estonia, in the top 5 of the study's global ranking. This assessment comes in a particularly sensitive political context. Since the 2023 presidential elections and 2024 legislative elections, Madagascar's political climate remains marked by opposition contestations, debates on institutional independence, and recurring questions about the quality of the democratic process. Without commenting on specific political events, V-Dem relies on hundreds of indicators covering public freedoms, institutions, elections, rule of law, and checks and balances to measure the evolution of political regimes. An international reference in democracy assessment, the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is today the world's largest database on political regimes. The program brings together more than 4,200 researchers and experts, analyzes 202 countries and territories, and draws on more than 32 million data points covering the period from 1789 to 2025. More than 600 indicators are used to evaluate different dimensions of democracy and identify developments, whether toward democratic consolidation or authoritarian drift.