PROTESTS LAUNCHED AFTER PLAN TO TAX UNEMPLOYED ‘PARASITES’

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, Thursday to protest a tax on the unemployed.

The “law against social parasites” requires people who work less than 183 days a year to pay the government US$250 annually. (At the start of 2017, the average monthly salary was $380.) Officials estimate that there are about 470,000 such “parasites” in the country of 10 million.

President Alexander Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator, announced that he won’t enforce the measure this year, though he’s not scrapping it. Those who have already paid will get a rebate if they get a job this year.