Decades ago, Mozambique’s liberation party, Frelimo, easily attracted adoring crowds. The promise of rescue from Portuguese colonizers and a life with employment and housing for all was an easy sell in a southern African country that suffered from a racist regime.
But when Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo became president on Wednesday, he assumed leadership of a country more unhappy with his party than at any time in its 50 years of independence. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets after October’s elections, which voters, international observers, opposition leaders and rights groups sharply criticized as fraudulent.
The country of 33 million inhabitants has been plunged into political chaos since the vote. And today, Frelimo’s grip on power is being tested like never before, at a time when Mozambique faces pressing economic and social crises, analysts say. Two of the three opposition parties boycotted the inauguration and the opening of Parliament on Monday.
Voter anger has resulted in huge street protests in recent months that have led to clashes with the police. At least 300 people were killed.
Mr. Chapo and his party had likely hoped that Wednesday’s inauguration would help the country move toward reconciliation and stability. But early signs suggest a difficult path toward unity.
Police quickly dispersed a few dozen peaceful protesters two blocks from the inauguration in the capital, Maputo. Protesters fled when police marched toward them with barking dogs on leashes.
The police fired several live rounds to quell the protests. But this show of force only angered the demonstrators, who shouted: “They will not govern,” referring to Frelimo.
“We are going to burn Mozambique,” Angelina Chissano, one of the demonstrators in the capital, said Wednesday.
Such protests offer a glimpse of the new reality that Frelimo must face.
“Frelimo has become accustomed to seeing itself as the chosen party,” said Gabriel Muthisse, a former senior party official who remains an active member. “They thought elections were just a formality for the people to confirm their leadership. Over the last five or ten years, things have shown that to be false.
After taking the oath, Mr. Chapo tried to reach out to the Mozambicans. He has pledged to cut state spending by reducing government staff numbers and reducing costly perks enjoyed by ministers. (The government is often criticized for spending lavishly on public servants while failing to meet the basic needs of many citizens.)
“I know many of us feel that leaders are distant, inaccessible and disconnected from the real concerns of the people,” Chapo said. “This will change.”
Mr. Chapo seemed to be taking a cue from his rival’s playbook. Venâncio Mondlane, the opposition leader, is seen by many as the true champion of ordinary Mozambicans. The fiery populist claims to have won the election and has attracted a huge following, particularly among disaffected young voters.
When Mr. Mondlane, 50, returned to Mozambique last week from self-imposed exile, police responded with deadly force against his supporters who took to the streets to greet him.
Mr Mondlane called for protests to continue, even though this week did not spark the mass demonstrations that paralyzed the capital and other cities in previous months.
In an interview in Maputo, Mr. Mondlane said he had communicated with Mr. Chapo through a mutual friend. He expressed hope that the president would negotiate a resolution to end the political crisis and accept the reforms put forward by him in a recent proposal. In addition to amending the constitution and overhauling government institutions, these reforms include building three million homes for poor Mozambicans and creating a half-billion-dollar fund for women-led startups and young people.
“You have to give people something very crucial and something tangible,” Mr Mondlane said. “I don’t know if all the elements of my proposal will be met or not. But I think we are going to start a platform for dialogue.
Protests are still necessary, he added, because to ensure the reforms are implemented, “you have to put pressure on the government.”
Mr. Chapo, 48, emerged last year as Frelimo’s surprise presidential candidate. Unlike other party members, he did not push for the nomination. He entered public service just 10 years ago, but was confronted long ago with the country’s troubled political history.
When he was 5, he said, his family was kidnapped by guerrilla forces fighting Frelimo during Mozambique’s 16-year civil war. A lawyer by training, he served as provincial governor before running for president for the first time last year as a member of Frelimo.
Branquinho João da Costa, a 43-year-old doctor living part-time in Maputo, remembers his primary school days when the glory of Frelimo was instilled in him and his classmates through freedom songs. “It is very difficult to be completely disconnected from Frelimo,” he said.
Many Mozambicans are now unhappy with the party due to accusations of corruption and its failure to tackle rising prices, which Mr da Costa called “a new type of slavery for the people”. He said the Frelimo of his childhood was more in touch with the party’s socialist roots and was then led by officials who cared less about wealth and power.
“The real goal of Frelimo was to serve the people,” Mr. da Costa said. “Now many of them are fighting for political positions just to steal from us.”
Frelimo no longer has the luxury of ignoring such criticism, some party members say. The past few months have been a warning, said Alsácia Sardinha, who was sworn in this week for her third term as a Frelimo MP.
“We have to reinvent ourselves to meet people’s demands,” she said. This reinvention involves the party policing its own government against wrongdoing, she added.
Mr Muthisse, the former Frelimo official, said Parliament can no longer automatically approve laws proposed by the president. The party must focus on reforming institutions, such as the electoral commission and the courts, to regain public trust, he said.
This reform should be at the center of negotiations with the opposition, said Mr. Muthisse.
“Everyone must bring ideas,” he said, “so that we can all believe in them in the next elections.”
