Viktar Marchyk: Lukashenka Must Leave As Soon As Possible

The situation in the country encourages this.

Slonim activist of European Belarus Viktar Marchyk told the press service of the civil campaign about the situation in the region.

- What is happening to salaries and pensions in Slonim now?

- Salaries are falling. All enterprises operate for a minimum wage. A lot of enterprises have become loss-making, there are bankrupts, for example, Textileschik. Also, many individual entrepreneurs have closed their businesses. If there are relatively paid positions in Slonim, they require competent specialists with long experience. However, people are reluctant to accept such positions, because it bears additional work they are not paid for.

Local heads are not interested in product development, they seize the day. They do not think about workshops that collapse, and lines that break down. They are not interested in it because they know that today you're a director, tomorrow you're not. They do not think about the progress of the enterprises.

Many people leave or try to go abroad because they know that in Poland, for example, they will get ten times more for the same job as in Slonim. People do not want to work for pennies in Belarus and have additional unpaid duties.

- What is about the young?

- Everything's bad. It's very hard for a young specialist to find a job. Because even if one has 1-2 higher educations, one won't get a job without having ties. An employer still constantly demands work experience. How is it possible for a young specialist who has just graduated? Our state has no opportunity for young people to manifest themselves. Young people leave for larger settlements or abroad. In the regions, children of officials have good jobs. Ties, kickbacks and bribes make a difference.

I have recently talked to medical practitioners. Slonim lacks medical workers, but young specialists work off their placement and leave. There are no conditions for them to work. Young doctors are not interested to reside in Slonim. It's understandable. But ordinary people suffer.

- What are the wages and pensions in Slonim?

- Salaries are about 370-400 rubles. There are enterprises with higher wages, but they also work more: overtime, night shifts. It makes a wage of 600-700 roubles. The wage is the minimum in Slonim. 400 rubles is still a good salary.

Aliaksandr Dzerimarko, a resident of the agricultural settlement Ozernitsa, worked on two jobs for a month (cattleman and locksmith) and received a salary of Br270. After this, the man addressed the independent media, and then he got other 100 rubles on his bank card. Many people are afraid to write somewhere and now live off such miserable wages. They are silent because they do not want to lose even such income. Not everyone can leave Belarus to work. Some people have families, small children, sick parents, and so on.

- And what do people say?

- Prices in shops are rising, the utility bills are growing, wages are falling, benefits have been removed and people expect nothing good in this regard.

Workers, unlike heads of enterprises, seek ways to improve the situation. They have ideas and are ready to work, but the management does not listen to them. Heads ignore ordinary people, think they are more competent. This attitude towards ordinary people ruins everything.

- How to solve problems?

- The only thing left in this situation is to change and break down this system because it will bring no good. One has to uproot the rest of this system. How do we do that? We need to remove Lukashenka from power as soon as possible. When the dictator leaves, we have to start from scratch.