Andrei Sannikov: Sometimes common sense comes back

The new governments that remember how to struggle against dictatorship have come to power in Eastern Europe.

Andrei Sannikov, the leader of the European Belarus civil campaign and a candidate for president in Belarus, writes about this in his blog on Echo of Moscow’s website.

As a result of the recent elections in Slovakia, the center-right coalition was formed and Iveta Radicova became Slovakia’s first female Prime Minister. Former PM Mikulas Dzurinda was appointed Foreign Minister.

He promised in one of his first statements that Slovakia would limit contacts with the countries where harsh violations of human rights and personal freedoms take place, in particular, with Belarus and Cuba. Slovakia joined the European Union under Dzuridna’s government, who served as Prime Minister for 8 years in 1998-2006.

Dzurinda remembers everything: socialistic camp, the Velvet Revolution, authoritarian Meciar’s coming to power, when the point of no return seems to have been passed in Europe and dictator’s revanche looked impossible.

His own experience makes him say the human rights are more important than economic interests.

Dzuridna hasn’t been in the government for four years.

It was the time when Europe started practicing realpolitik towards Belarus and announced a dialogue with the dictator. We heard a great many arguments to explain this: isolation of Lukashenka brought no results, the situation in the country became worse, so a method of negotiations should be tried; Lukashenka may be an illegitimate but acting president, if he is an acting president, we should talk with him; Lukashenka behaves like that because he hasn’t seen life in Europe, but if he is lifted sanctions and allowed to Europe at least to drink beer, he’ll see advantages of western life and immediately start reforms, cancel censorship and abolish capital punishment upon his arrival in Minsk.

Europe was convincing itself, though everyone understands that dictators cling to the things that democracy denies in principle: censorship, human liberties suppressions, rigging election results, non-compliance with international agreements.

The dictatorship is like a pole in the field, but some people try to talk to it. It is impossible to have a dialogue with a pole, it won’t move until it is pulled out. Nevertheless, certain politicians have been appealing to the pole for the best motives during the last two years. Different politologists supported them wandering around and smacking lips: “This pole is so strong that nobody can pull it out. It will stand forever, we need to accept it.”

But now new governments that remember how to struggle against dictatorship have come to power in Eastern Europe. I mean Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

They cannot but see the senseless pole, which got in the way and hinders everyone to move.

Appointment of Dzurinda is in tune with the May’s decision of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on breaking contacts with official Minsk. But only a year ago, the PACE spoke about mythical progress towards the liberalization in the Belarusian policy. It was offered to restore Belarus’s the special guest status under a condition of abolition of the death penalty. Belarus started executing death sentences as a response to the good will.

The PACE resolution and Dzurinda’s statement may be signs of a new European policy.

When two years passed it was found out that the dictator, like a pole, is a poor conversation partner, and those who try to talk to him look at least not serious because all dictators face political collapse. Some of them are tried in The Hague, others find themselves in the dock in own countries. Some amateurs of authoritarian rule who have enough intellect finally accept the real choice of people and go away. Former Slovakian autocrat Meciar was a member of parliament after the regime had changed, but he lost the latest parliamentary elections. Having realized his career was over, he said he would go in the woods for “mediation”.