Indonesia’s politics in 2025 were shaped by the Prabowo administration’s drive to consolidate authority while containing recurring mass protest. Proposals to revise electoral and party rules, alongside renewed memory politics that rehabilitated elements of the New Order, underscored ongoing democratic erosion. At the same time, student-led mobilization, and the state’s alternating use of concessions and coercion, functioned as the main societal check on rapid institutional rollback. Economically, growth remained stable, but fiscal space narrowed as large, visible programs, especially the Free Nutritious Meals initiative, created budgetary and implementation risks and heightened scrutiny of quasi-fiscal governance. Industrial policy and downstreaming continued, yet investment quality and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) constraints became more salient amid a less predictable global trade environment. Internationally, frictions with the United States encouraged diversification efforts, while high-profile initiatives on Gaza highlighted the limits of symbolic diplomacy in delivering economic relief.
Michael Buehler (Sun,) studied this question.