Siarhei Verameyanka: Workers' Uprising Is To Bring Down Last Outpost Of Lukashism

The protest moods of the Belarusians are coming to the boil.

Siarhei Verameyanka, a Hrodna coordinator of the Belarusian National Congress, stated that to Charter97.org.

– Lukashenka has recently statedthat the revised Decree on "parasites" will be ready by October 1, and Minister of Labor and Social Protection Iryna Kastsevich announced the implementation of the principle "if you do not work – you pay for services." How will the Belarusians, in your opinion, react to such announcements?

– People have already shown how they react to such tricks of the authorities. It seems to me that Lukashenka simply lives in an imaginary world, he is self-isolated: he does not read news, does not follow the information on the Internet, it is presented to him as a special report. In other words Lukashenka is not aware of the real situation.

No doubt, it would be better for him to make the decree on "parasites" nonfunctioning, but we see that after the International Monetary Fund did not allocate money to support the regime, he has found himself in a very bad situation. In this connection, Lukashenka is still trying to push forward the idea of the scandalous decree and is planning to introduce some ID-cards. I think that very soon people will tell him: "Back off! We're sick of you!"

Moreover the functional process of the decree itself has not been developed. It is absolutely not known how this will all work: will the Belarusians labeled as "parasites" pay higher prices for services, or pay for medical service and appeals to the police?

– Do the Belarusian authorities pay attention to the fact that in the current socio-economic situation their initiative is, to put it mildly, inappropriate?

– They got out of touch with reality long ago. The fact that people cannot find work is the misfortune of the people, the authorities, the state. In such a catastrophic situation it is necessary to create conditions for the Belarusian to get a decent job. "The work for the sake of work" reminds a concentration camp: people work, and they are just fed for it.

Now we have this situation in Belarus: people's wages are barely enough to feed them, and the authorities only make things worse by their actions.

– Being a BNC coordinator in the region, what can you say about the public sentiment?

– I'm sure that the protests will continue. Moreover, they will come to a new level. Belarusians are a European nation, smart people and understand perfectly well the reason why the country has such a difficult economic situation. They realize that this happened not just because the tyrant wanted to do so, but because the authorities do not have money even to support themselves, let alone providing a decent life for the Belarusians.

In my opinion, the protests will continue right after the new edition of the decree is published. And they will not just continue, but align with the demands of other population segments.

I talk to different people at work: from workers to the military. Entrepreneurs and workers’ anger is boiling, like a pot of borsch, and the authorities are trying to cover it with a lid, so that nothing comes out. But protests will still "boil out" and they will come together with the demands of entrepreneurs and other disgruntled sections of the population.

Chances are high that salaries will fall and workers will rise and say their word. And then the last outpost of Lukashism will be brought down. After all, it will not be the so-called "fifth column", not "fat lousy fleas," not "parasites," but the people who are the basis for everything.

I think that the economic situation in the country will only worsen, because in fact the authorities are running out of money to stay afloat.

Belarusians should only become more daring, make the last effort, and understand that no one but us. Otherwise we’ll have another North Korea.