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Madagascar has detained a former French serviceman and expelled a French diplomat over an alleged plot to destabilize the country.

Getting into it: Prosecutors announced Tuesday that Guy Baret, a former French national serviceman, has been placed in pretrial detention at a maximum-security prison alongside a Malagasy army officer, Colonel Patrick Rakotomamonjy, and several other alleged accomplices. The charges include conspiracy, harboring fugitives, and a disinformation campaign meant to stir up the public. Prosecutors also accuse the group of planning attacks on national power lines and thermal plants run by state utility Jirama.

Prosecutors say April 18 was the date the group had circled. Their plans, hashed out in a WhatsApp chat called “Revolution of the Brave Citizens,” reportedly involved cutting the lights, snarling traffic, peeling security forces away from the government, and getting young people into the streets to fan the chaos. On the diplomatic side, the Malagasy foreign ministry ordered a staffer at the French embassy in Antananarivo out of the country, calling his conduct “deemed incompatible with diplomatic status.” Two sources told AFP the man is a security official who answers to France’s Interior Ministry.

As of right now, France is saying this is all bullshit, with its foreign ministry summoning Madagascar’s chargé d’affaires in Paris Wednesday to “vigorously protest” the expulsion. They called the accusations “not only unfounded, but also incomprehensible.” French foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said France “categorically rejects any accusation of destabilising” Madagascar’s government.

This all comes as Madagascar has been drifting away from France and toward Russia since military ruler Colonel Michael Randrianirina seized power in October 2025.