Workers heckle embattled Belarus leader amid strikes
BRUSSELS/MINSK: Workers heckled and jeered President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday as he visited a factory and strikes grew across Belarus, raising the pressure on the country’s leader to step down after 26 years in power.
On the ninth straight day of mass protests over the official results of the August 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 growing political crisis.
He told the workers that those who intend to strike could leave if they want, but added 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,” the 65-year-old former state farm director shouted.
As he spoke, over 5,000 striking workers from the Minsk Tractor Plant marched down the streets of the city, joining an increasing number of state-controlled 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 workers want Lukashenko to give way to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leading opposition candidate in the election.Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the elections, said she was willing to lead the country. Lithuania, a Nato member, said Belarus has started military drills on its western border.
European Union leaders meeting over the latest developments in Belarus will send a message to the Russian government to stay out of the former Soviet republic, even as Britain said it rejected the results of the “fraudulent” polls.
A senior US official said Russia must respect Belarus’ sovereignty and right of its people to freely elect their own leaders.