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Lukashenko made the feedback whereas visiting a Minsk manufacturing unit Monday, the place he was booed and a personnel chanted “Leave!” in unison. It’s one more signal that the strongman’s conventional assist base is crumbling after he claimed victory in disputed elections earlier this month.
“You talk about dishonest elections and want to hold new elections,” Lukashenko instructed the group. “My response to this — we held the elections and until you kill me, there won’t be any new elections.”
The embattled strongman, who has has been in energy for 26 years, is going through renewed waves of strain from inside and outdoors the nation, after contemporary strikes, indignant hecklers, worldwide condemnation and a direct problem to his place left him clinging to energy.
Independent observers have criticized the nation’s August 9 election for not being free or honest. And a lot of the worldwide neighborhood has expressed solidarity with widespread protests, piling strain on Lukashenko to provide in to calls for one more vote. At dwelling, the leader misplaced the assist of state broadcasters — who aired photographs of empty studios after employees walked out in protest.
In a video message filmed in entrance of a clean white wall in Lithuania, the place she fled after the vote, Tikhanovskaya stated: “I am ready to assume the responsibility and act as a national leader in order for the country to calm down and enter the normal rhythm.” She stated she would maintain a contemporary vote and supplied assist for the swelling demonstrations and industrial motion throughout the nation.
She additionally appealed to the nation’s safety forces to change sides and switch against the President, promising to “accept” repentant regulation enforcement officers — and known as on Lukashenko to launch political prisoners being held in jails in Belarus.
During the manufacturing unit go to on Monday, Lukashenko doubled down on his combative response. “You should never expect me to do anything under pressure,” he instructed staff of the MZKT plant, in accordance with state information company Belta.
Further industrial motion is deliberate on Monday after quite a few studies of walkouts in latest days.
Lukashenko instructed the throng of displeased manufacturing unit staff: “Even if you shoot me tomorrow there are already other people who are going to work.”
The President stated that he would be keen to share energy and to vary the structure however won’t accomplish that underneath strain from “the streets,” in a reference to the mass protests.
“A new constitution is needed,” he added. “Two options were offered to me. I rejected them because they are not very different from the current one. Work is underway on a third version. Come, sit down and work on the constitution and I will transfer you the powers according to the constitution. But not under pressure from the streets!”
“Yes, I’m not a saint. You know my toughness. You know that if there was no toughness, there would be no country. You know for sure that I will not offend your children and I will not give up the country to anyone. This is the main thing,” Lukashenko stated.
TV employees stroll out
As Lukashenko scrambled to regain management, Belarusians tuned into TV networks on Monday morning to see photographs of empty desks and re-runs of outdated programming.
Staff on the nation’s state TV channels staged a walkout in solidarity with protesters and against media censorship, with some becoming a member of protesters outdoors the nationwide TV and radio broadcasting service Belteleradio, chanting “Truth! Truth! Truth” and waving posters demanding Lukashenko’s resignation.
State media in Belarus has lengthy served as one of many essential propaganda instruments aiding Lukashenko’s 26-year grip on energy, however that maintain appeared to have been shattered on Monday.
The community Belarus 1 aired views of empty anchor desks, whereas one other state channel, ONT, aired a brief phase of manufacturing unit staff chanting “Leave!” to Lukashenko throughout his Minsk manufacturing unit go to. Dozens of protesters and staffers additionally gathered at its entrance.
Ekaterina Vodonosova, an anchor who used to host a tradition program on BT channel, a part of Belteleradio, instructed CNN she resigned to protest what she says is the unfair protection on state media. Vodonosova additionally stated that lots of her pals are at the moment in detention or have been overwhelmed and tortured within the services.
“I felt ashamed just thinking that I will have to go back on air and get into a BT branded car knowing that this company was doing this,” Vodonosova instructed CNN.
In earlier days, a few dozen outstanding state media journalists have resigned, together with the top of presidential pool for ONT Dmitry Semchenko. Some didn’t state the explanations publicly whereas others cited media censorship as their motive.
Elsewhere at Belaruskalii — a key potassium mine within the metropolis of Soligorsk, 150 kilometers south of the Belarusian capital — miners joined nationwide actions by strolling out.
Several hundred staff got here out to strike outdoors the corporate’s essential constructing to demand new elections, the discharge of political prisoners and punishment for regulation enforcement officers who attacked protesters final week, native outlet TUT.BY reported.
Europe condemns Lukashenko, whereas Putin mulls choices
Meanwhile, international governments have heaped additional scrutiny on the longtime leader, becoming a member of requires a contemporary vote and condemning obvious human rights violations within the aftermath of the election.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stated on Monday that the United Kingdom “does not accept the results” of the August 9 poll, calling it “unfair” and criticizing the “grisly repression that followed.”
“The world has watched with horror at the violence used by the Belarusian authorities to suppress the peaceful protests that followed this fraudulent Presidential election,” Raab stated.
EU leaders will meet through video convention on Wednesday to debate the state of affairs, European Council President Charles Michel stated on Monday. “The people of Belarus have the right to decide on their future and freely elect their leader,” Michel stated in a tweet. “Violence against protesters is unacceptable and cannot be allowed.”
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz instructed Bild newspaper on Monday that Lukashenko is a “bad dictator,” including: “I am firmly convinced that this President no longer has any legitimacy, otherwise he would not act with such incredible, such brutal, violence.”
US President Donald Trump briefly weighed in on the state of affairs on Monday.
“That’s a terrible situation, Belarus. We’ll be following it very closely,” he stated, when requested to weigh in by a reporter on the south garden of the White House.
Amid the intensifying public anger, Lukashenko has reached for a lifeline from Vladimir Putin — reportedly holding two telephone calls over the weekend with the Russian President, who’s mulling his choices in a neighboring state that also falls squarely underneath Russia’s sphere of affect.
But the Kremlin has to this point been noncommittal in its response. Belarus is a crucial buffer nation between Russia and the NATO member states of central Europe.
Although there was no official depend, CNN crew within the Belarusian capital Minsk estimated that round 50,000 folks attended the opposition protest on Sunday afternoon, making it one of many largest demonstrations within the nation in latest reminiscence.
Lukashenko gave a speech to a smaller crowd of presidency supporters a number of streets away, through which he claimed Belarus was being threatened by international interference.
“There is a build-up of military power on the western borders of the country. Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine are ordering us to hold new elections. If we listen to them, we will perish,” he stated.
A spokeswoman for NATO, which counts Lithuania and Poland amongst its member states, instructed CNN in an announcement that there was no NATO buildup within the area.
Mary Ilyushina reported from Belarus, and Rob Picheta wrote from London. CNN’s Vasco Cotovio, Caro Kriel, Katherina Krebs and Rory Sullivan contributed to this report.
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