Valer Minets: People Laugh At Lukashenka On TV

Belarusians crave a better life.

Valer Minets, one of the democratic opposition leaders, a BNC representative in Lida, said that to the press service of the Belarusian National Congress.

– What are the salaries in your region? And how have they changed over the past year?

– The average salaries in the region are 200-500 rubles per month. At that, the greater part of Lida residents gets 300-400 rubles. The situation is tougher in the region. For example, the normative earnings for workers at the flax plant in the village of Darzhy are 200-250 rubles. The situation is critical at agricultural enterprises. Because of the debt owed to the power sector by the workshops, where the equipment is serviced, they have been left without electricity. To remedy the situation, for several hours, the mechanics hook-up straight to the transmission line, with no counters, while one of the staff is on duty, watching in case an inspection comes. This practice is almost universal!

– How easy is it to find a job in Lida and Lida district?

– There have been reductions at the enterprises in recent years, the number of workers at Lida Lakakraska is down by half now, the meat processing plant, which was far from being the worst in the region, has completely ceased to exist. The private enterprise Cascade has actually been bankrupted by the state because of non-payment of budgetary organizations, because of over-lending, the final loan interest rates exceeded 100%! The director of the enterprise is fighting for the survivability of the enterprise, but the number of workers has decreased from 200 people to 70. At the same time, there are vacancies on the Bizlida website and the Employment Center! How come? It’s very simple. Business leaders are forced to file applications, as if they need workers. And people go to interviews for months, but to no avail, since these jobs are a fake. And in order to get a job in a locomotive depot, the employee first negotiates on the spot. Then, if the candidate suits the employer, the employee has to go to the Employment Center to take an assignment to the depot from there, allegedly the Employment Center has found this workplace! A fake assignment!

– What socio-economic problems do worry people, your friends? Whom do they blame for these problems?

– The situation as a whole has clearly worsened over the year. Of course, first of all people are concerned about daily household issues. The lion's share of salaries of common Belarusians goes to food. In addition, the fees in schools and kindergartens, the collection of money for bribes to officials, to place the children to a more or less decent job and so on. It is clear that people blame the authorities for being in this deep trouble. The worst drunkard realizes already that the state television only lies. People laugh, hearing the amounts of salaries that sound from the TV. Common Lida residents do not even see anything like these "500 to everyone".

A significant part of people go to Poland or Russia to work, a lot of people go to Poland with a family with a one-way ticket. At the same time, people are not interested in politics that much, since for most of them politics means Lukashenka, and our people are sick and tired of him for decades of lies and deceit. People crave a better life.

We remind that on October 21 at 14.00, the March of Disgruntled Belarusians 2.0 against the impoverishment of the Belarusian people and the lawlessness in the army will be held at Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk.