Embattled leader jeered by crowd as strikes mount
MINSK, Belarus — Workers heckled and jeered President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday during a factory visit as strikes grew across Belarus, raising the pressure on the authoritarian leader to step down after 26 years in power.
On the ninth straight day of mass protests over the official results of the Aug. 9 presidential election that demonstrators say was rigged, Lukashenko flew by helicopter to a factory in the capital of Minsk to rally support, but he was met by angry workers chanting, “Go away!”
He told the workers: “I will never cave in to pressure.”
Lukashenko said the country could have a new presidential election, but only after approving an amended version of its constitution — an apparent bid to buy some time amid the escalating political crisis.
He told the factory workers that those who intend to strike could leave if they want, but he added that the protests are ruining the economy and said the country would collapse if he steps down.
“Some of you might have got the impression that the government no longer exists, that it has tumbled down. The government will never collapse, you know me well,” he declared.
As he spoke, more than 5,000 striking workers from the Minsk Tractor Plant marched down the streets of the city, joining an increasing number of statecontrolled factories across the nation of 9.5 million in walking off the job.
Miners at the huge potash factory in Soligorsk also said they were joining the strike. The giant Belaruskali factory that accounts for a fifth of the world’s potash fertilizer output is the nation’s top cash earner.
The strikes follow a brutal dispersal of peaceful, postelection demonstrations last week with rubber bullets, tear gas, clubs and stun grenades. At least 7,000 were detained by riot police, with many complaining they were beaten mercilessly. One protester was killed and hundreds were wounded.
The workers want Lukashenko to give way to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leading opposition candidate in the election.
“Lukashenko is a former president. He needs to go,” said Sergei Dylevsky, the leader of the protest at the Minsk Tractor Plant, adding that Tsikhanouskaya is “our president, legitimate and elected by the people.”
Dylevsky voiced concern that the ironfisted leader’s weekend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin could herald an attempt by the country’s giant eastern neighbor to send in troops to prop up Lukashenko.