“Primitive person with a pathological desire for power”

Belarusian politicians sum up the results of Lukashenka's rule.

Viktar Ivashkevich, Mechyslau Hryb and Stanislau Shushkevich spoke to charter97.org about reasons and consequences of Lukashenka's rise to power and establishment of the dictatorship.

Viktar Ivashkevich, a coordinator of the civil campaign European Belarus:

“Everyone knows that the emerging democracy was replaced by a strong dictatorship. I recall that democratic forces hoped year by year that this year will be the last one for Lukashenka. They didn't turn attention to the state of society, didn't plan joint actions to fight against the dictatorship. It was just wishful thinking. People were taking to streets not because the revolution was objectively prepared, but because they wanted this regime to come down. It has been going on for 19 years. I think joint actions must be planed long before elections. Three months are not enough.

Mechyslau Hryb, the chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus of the 12th convocation:

“It's clear that all of us, including me, have became older for these 19 years. Belarus in fact still has Soviet power. I, the chairman of the Supreme Council, still doesn't receive pension. Belarus has lost good relations with the European Union, lost its special guest status in the Council of Europe and membership in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. We have been building the so called 'union state' for these years, but were didn't succeed here and departed from the process, because it doesn't interest us now. Germs of democracy were killed 19 years ago. Lukashenka says he is a democrat. But it's nonsense. He has never been a democrat for a single day.

Stanislau Shushkeivch, the first head of independent Belarus:

“The pathological desire for power inspired this primitively educated person for such a large number of stupid things, that we will need a long time to fix everything. Famous people disappeared in Belarus. We have neither a fair and independent judicial system nor a democratic constitution. We have come to authoritarianism and satisfaction of primitive needs. I have always thought that there are no ifs in history. A person whose face says 'don't trust me' managed to make people believe him. It means that our society is not ready yet for a democracy. It must ripen under Lukashenka's dictatorship.”