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Lukashenko names guiding principles for political parties in Belarus
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MINSK, 13 December (BelTA) – Only those political parties whose activities are in line with the basic principles of domestic and foreign policy should be allowed to work in Belarus, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting to discuss issues related to the harmonization of certain laws with the updated Constitution on 13 December, BelTA has learned.
According to the head of state, political parties are an important institution for the Belarusian society. The bill on political parties has been discussed before; it was scrutinized at a meeting hosted by the president, and later fine-tuned. “Now I want to hear about the key changes. What has changed? How will we navigate through this?” Aleksandr Lukashenko asked. The president explained that the question of political parties is truly important as it can cause not only debate in society, but also social strife: “I know this from my own experience, and everyone in attendance knows it ... Our society has gone through this. Therefore, we should foresee everything in the law and communicate it to the public so that it does not outrage party members and cause turmoil in our society.”
The bill on political parties should be brought into line with the reality on the ground, the head of state stressed. “It is true that we must follow developments in the neighboring states, outside our country. Yet, we should focus on our own country, our experience. Our actions should be in compliance with the developments in our Belarus, in our society,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
“Only those political parties whose activities comply with the basic principles of domestic and foreign policy should be present in the political landscape of the country,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized. According to him, representatives of political parties must stick to the strategy that will be developed at the Belarusian People’s Congress, which is the biggest representative body of people’s power. “What is not clear about it and what is wrong here? We have a policy, it has been worked out. Please, enforce it. Political parties have enough freedom of action to suggest ways to implement this policy,” the president said. And this depends on political views of political parties themselves, they can represent a wide spectrum from the left to the right. “I don’t see anything bad in this. However, every political party should be loyal to the country, act in the interests of citizens, our people, Belarusians,” the head of state said.
He is confident that the political system in Belarus will evolve and new patriotic political parties will appear. “At the same time, random people will be out of the picture,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.
This said, things will not change overnight, it will take time. Yet, as the president emphasized, we need to embark on it now: “Today we will evaluate all the refinements and the degree of readiness of the documents under discussion in order to make a decision whether we can already submit them to the House of Representatives.”
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