Belarusians don’t believe in Lukashenka’s promises

69.2% of the Belarusians don’t believe in promises of the Belarusian ruler, who says they will live like Europeans by 2011.

These data are given by a national poll, carried out by the National Institute of Social and Economic Studies.

We remind that the promises to live like in Europe in two years were given by Alyaksandr Lukashenka ahead of the president nail elections in ... 2001. We live in 2009 now, but the Belarusian dictator continues to promise the European standards of living in two years. As a result, people don’t believe him.

As we have already reported, for the first time in many years most citizens of Belarus said they prefer joining the European Union to integration with Russia. The number of those voted for the EU (42.7%) exceeded the number of supporters of Russia (38.3%).

The economic crisis penetrates deeply into the lives of Belarusians. To the question “How are you satisfied with current living conditions in Belarus?” 45% of the respondents answered “fully”, or rather not satisfied”, 36.9% think their material standing has “deteriorated” for last three months (only 10.9%said their economic condition has improved), almost 88% noticed “increase in prices for food, manufactured goods, housing, education, medical and other services” affects their life, and causes “concern and real shock” of 40% of the respondents. The majority thinks “the main responsibility for deterioration of the economic situation in the country” lies on representatives of the authorities – on president (42.7%), the government (40.7%), the local authorities (24.1%), but not on external factors – on West (24.7%), Russia 7.9%), or the notorious mafia (5.4%).

63% of the Belarusian population have begun to buy cheaper food and other products for the last 2–3 months.

Only few are optimistic about the nearest future. 88% of the voters say the price growth affects their lives and causes shock, anxiety or just concern.

People lay the main responsibility for deterioration of the economic situation on Lukashenka and the government equally – 42.7% and 40.7%.

One of the main anti-crisis measures of the authorities doesn’t find support of people. To the question “Should the state restrict import to Belarus to support its own enterprises and prevent unemployment?” 58.4% of the respondents answered “No”.

Most voters say they don’t want Alyaksandr Lukashenka to be president any more. To the question “In your opinion, is Lukashenka good at coping with presidential duties to be elected for this office again, or it’s time to give the chance to someone else to perform these duties?” 50.2% answered “give a chance for someone new” (37.4% voted for reelection of Lukashenka).