Cover image: The transparent ballot boxes used in the Belarusian presidential election (photo by Jeff Pachoud, AFP, source Linkiesta.it)
We publish some considerations by Sen. Luigi Marino on the facts that are bringing Belarus to the center of international attention.
Italianoby Luigi Marino
August 19, 2020 – Dissent, which was already present and latent since the beginning of the Lukashenko era, has undoubtedly grown by far in recent years. We must never forget, to understand the recent events, that Lukashenko in 1991 was the Belarusian deputy who voted against the breakup of the USSR and who has always defended the Soviet system by opposing savage privatizations. This dissent is now expressed not only by sections of the youth population, but also by citizens who mainly carry out self-employment or by others who have had the opportunity to establish contacts with abroad for reasons related to the exercise of free professions. In addition to claiming democracy and spaces for economic freedom and enterprise, it is not yet known what the opposition’s alternative programmatic lines are.
Joining NATO as a precondition for joining the European Union? Break with the Russian Federation by renouncing, among other things, essential raw materials supplied at favorable prices? Wide freedom of enterprise and privatization of sectors currently state or under state control?
Is the opposition, which includes some groups of factory workers and employees, united on such a policy? And to what extent is the working class willing to question its own state in this sense? Is it not true that – unlike post-Soviet Russia itself – Belarus has made every effort to preserve that welfare state, based essentially on the absence of unemployment, consisting of relatively high wages compared to the rest of the countries already belonging to the Soviet Union, by almost free social services in the fields of health, education, transport, to name but a few?
Even the most informed and hypercritical journalists with regard to the foreign and internal policy of Belarus and not only of this, such as Paolo Garimberti (see “La Repubblica” on August 17) do not ignore and cannot ignore what has been preserved of the previous legal-ownership structure and achieved in all 26 years of Lukashenko’s presidency, as Belarus is a presidential republic.
Belarus with Lukashenko has not seen and experienced the sad phenomenon of the “oligarchs” who, at the time of Gorbachev and especially Yelcyn, seized the wealth of the state for a little while.
But all this was not enough for the dissent, which is a real fact in part of the population, to be at least contained in its growth due to errors certainly held by the Government and due to the subsequent objective difficulties. Certainly the fluctuating and wavering policy in relations with the Russian Federation on the one hand and with the European Union on the other has resulted in less support from the Russian side and a substantial decrease in aid to tackle emerging problems.
This policy carried out in recent times together with the significant losses of state revenues deriving from exports, as well as the more recent consequences of the pandemic, could not fail to exacerbate existing contradictions “among the people” and in any case worsen the living conditions of Belarusians of the major cities in the first place.
The size of the participants in the protests was undoubtedly significant. This cannot escape a careful evaluation of the events that have occurred and cannot fail to constitute constant concern for President Lukashenko and for all the leaders of the country for the state of state-citizen relations and the need for their revitalization.
It is true that the Anti-Belarusian campaign began even before the electoral competition itself with the undeniable support of Western governments and with the accusation of the opposition, led by Tichanovskaja, of manipulating the vote not yet expressed by the voters.
Meanwhile, all candidates – four plus Lukashenko – organized their rallies and demonstrations without any hindrance until the opening of the polling stations, in which there were representatives of all the candidates to check the procedures, the transparent plexiglass ballot boxes, the regular participation of those entitled to vote and the same final count.
The almost plebiscitary result in Lukashenko’s favor is indisputable and goes far beyond the very accusations of the opposition of a vote reached for fraud or counting errors.
Once again the official press of the West beat the drum on the “sham elections” in Belarus without providing any evidence as in previous elections.
For their part, Western governments have in fact endorsed the disintegrating forces, hoping for institutional overturns. But for these governments it is a “DEMOCRATIC interference”, therefore, in their opinion, “legitimate”!
Regarding the post-elections, without prejudice to the reproach of the police violence suffered by unarmed citizens, it would however be necessary to remind all the “beautiful souls” what is prescribed by the Consolidated Law on Public Security in force in Italy regarding unauthorized demonstrations or what happened in Genoa years ago or more recently in Paris and New York before becoming indignant one way and calling for sanctions.
