On March 25, Flames Of Discontent Could Turn Into Real Fire

Any government which respects itself and the society would have noticed this long ago.

Quite many events have happened since the citizens of Belarus started expressing their discontent about the scandalous Decree #3 en masse.

Initially, it was the outrage expressed at discussion grounds and social networks.

Then, the collection of signatures against the “social parasites” decree started in February. It broke all records. The petition gained tremendous support: 23 thousand votes against the “social parasites” decree (to compare, the popular petition about the information on labels of the goods had a little more than 5 thousand).

The signatures were also collected live. The queues of those willing to sign for the abolishment of the decree in the Kamarouski market are still fresh in the memory. The residents of the regions were also active, they came to the offices of the REP Trade Union. In total, about 75 thousand signatures were collected, and the activists submitted them to the authorities.

Even the hundred thousand “likes” in the Odnoklassniki.ru social network reveal the unprecedentedly high outrage in the society, however curious it may sound.

Any government which has respect for itself and the society should have noticed these signals. However, they preferred to ignore all this, and the wheel of outrage started spinning further on.

The street protests of the Belarusians escalated: first the Outraged Belarusians’ March in the center of Minsk, which exceeded all the expectations of the experts with regard to the activity, and became, probably, the most massive action since 2010. Homel picked up the torch – more people gathered in the city center than ever, since early 1990s. Herein, the people, who didn’t participate in protest actions before, came out to the streets.

And, finally, the protests in Vitsebsk, Babruisk, and Baranavichy last weekend.

And something tells me that on 25 March the flames of discontent could turn into a full-fledged fire.

In most democratic countries, it would probably have taken the government a few days to respond to such a massive and diversified protest.

For example, it could be an emergency meeting of parliament, as it was in Romania in connection with the anti-corruption protests. Or the meeting of the officials of various levels with the protesters: an elementary and natural attempt to explain the situation to the people. Alternatively, the first persons would clearly appeal to the people from the TV screen to inform about further actions to resolve the situation.

However, this didn’t happen.

In Belarus, it’s not the first week since the mass protests began, while Lukashenka is searching for enemies instead of taking the decision in favor of the people, after two weeks of silence. Probably, the authorities hope that, in the “waiting mode”, the “peaceful Belarusians” will recover consciousness, calm down and get back to the place they were given. However, the government could face many more surprises. I only wonder, whether it would become an enemy to itself in the end.

Pavel Ross, “Solidarity”