Yanukevich: It’s bad to skip lectures, but one may do so for the sake of Freedom Day

The chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front Party urges young people to attend the rally on March 25.

Alyaksei Yanukevich, who is one of the organisers of the demonstration on Freedom Day, explained to Nasha Niva that this year there would be a focus on the young, as students are exactly the people who could be present on a mass scale during the rally which has been authorized by Minsk city executive committee at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25.

“We are going to call people to come. It would be certainly difficult for those who have a working day. But the young people, students, usually finish their studies at that time, so we are addressing students with a special appeal,” Yanukevich said.

The chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front does not exclude that in order to deprive students an opportunity to participate in Freedom Day, administrations of educational institutions could organize some classes urgently, or use other methods. However Yanukevich believes that classes could be skipped for the sake of participation in the rally.

“It’s a bad thing to skip classes, but one can do so for the sake of such a cause,” Yanukevich said.

At the same time, Yanukevich hopes that Freedom Day – 2015 is to gather enough participants:

“Last year the rally on Freedom Day had the greatest number of participants since the presidential election in 2010. People responded to the situation in the region, and they gathered, as one of its topics was solidarity with Ukraine. This year it is to be among the key issues as well, so we expect that people will come, though it would be difficult for some of them. We hope that there would be at least the same quantity as in last year.”

The organisers of the march had planned for people to start gathering at 5 p.m., and to hold the march since 6 p.m. till 7.15 p.m., and the political meeting until 8 p.m. However, the Minsk city executive committee rescheduled the rally and made it begin 2 hours earlier.

“Earlirizing the rally is a deliberate decision certainly. However, Minsk city executive committee explained that they rescheduled celebration of the Freedom Day for such an early hour for the meeting to be held during the daylight period, and not in the dark. They also said that the hour we applied for coincides with the rush hour, and though traffic is not to be blocked off, it could cause inconvenience for city dwellers. They say many complaints were received by them last year,” Yanukevich said.