Alexander Lukashenko, tyrant for 30 years

Photo: Nikolay Petrov Archives Agence France-Presse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a parade on the occasion of Independence Day in Minsk, July 3, 2009.

Patrice Senécal in Warsaw and Vilnius

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• Europe

An ode to dictatorship ? In the Orwellian language of the Belarusian regime, this is rather called a “forum of patriotic forces”. On July 20, in the vast “Sports Palace” in Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko was treated to an almost messianic tribute, acclaimed in unison by an assembly of hundreds of propagandists. The opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of his reign.

Thirty years ago to the day, in 1994, the autocrat with the unchanging moustache was inaugurated as president of Belarus, a position he has held on to ever since by force of batons. Against a backdrop of lively music, they praised the man “who saved the country from the brink.” And why not award him the title of “hero of Belarus,” as suggested by the faithful Aleksey Talay, who is also accused of facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian children ?

Not a word about the terror instilled by the regime, an accomplice of Vladimir Putin. As it enters its third decade at the height of power, four years after the pro-democracy revolt crushed by repression, the Lukashenki dictatorship seems to be entering a new phase, that of the cult of personality.

A dark reminder of Stalinist times at a time when the authoritarian drift of the regime is accelerating, “moving towards the classic characteristics of a totalitarian state,” explains Artyom Shraibman, a researcher at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia think tank.

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The making of a despot

In 1994, during the presidential election, Alexander Lukashenko rose to power by relying on a populist discourse tinged with Soviet-eraism. He promises to put an end to “corruption”, the preserve of a so-called elite, and appeals to a population plunged into the quagmire resulting from the dissolution of the Soviet bloc in 1991.

The regime soon revealed its true face. In 1996, following a contested “referendum,” Lukashenko granted himself full powers. The Constitution was violated, then repealed, the opposition was silenced, Parliament became a recording chamber, and the death penalty was retained instead of being abolished. The white-red-white national emblem—the symbol of independent Belarus in 1918—was replaced by the red and green Soviet flag, minus the hammer and sickle. The KGB, the intelligence agency, did not change its name or its brutal methods. In 1999, four opponents mysteriously disappeared, including the former president of the Central Bank. The democratic interlude from 1991 to 1994 seems a long time ago.

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Lukashenko has since managed to forge the image of a tough leader. A former director of sovkhoze (collective farm), he claims to be a man of the people, showing up in the fields at harvest time. But behind this facade of Homo sovieticusIn modern times, he is also described as a satrap devoid of real ideology. After all, wasn't it him who asserted, in 1995, that “not everything connected with Adolf Hitler in Germany was bad” ?

In addition to his human rights violations, which earned him the nickname “Europe's last dictator” in 2005, he is distinguished by his management of the economy, 70% state-owned, as well as by his electoral victories with a staggering score, oscillating around 80%, each time crushing the timid protests from the street.

But when the presidential election of August 9, 2020 arrives, the regime’s matrix breaks. This is one electoral fraud too many: fed up is gripping all levels of society, long considered apathetic. The disastrous management of COVID-19 – Lukashenko proposed fighting the virus with vodka and tractors – the emergence of a generation connected to pro-European aspirations and the awakening of civil society are the spark. But the regime cannot stand the rebellion. Power, nothing but power. The revolt will be crushed by harsh repression which still continues, four years later.

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• This text is published via our Perspectives section.

The strength of an authoritarian regime

Pavel Latouchka, a former apparatchik of the regime, worked closely with this “liar at heart”, “afraid of betrayal”. “In public, Lukashenko often humiliates officials”, says the man who was successively ambassador and Minister of Culture, before defecting in August 2020 and fleeing to Warsaw. He recalls this astonishing conversation with the head of state in 2010. “He threatened to strangle me while citing the recordings of my conversations with my own daughter in the car.” Latouchka, a renegade of the regime, is now receiving death threats. In mid-July, the Polish prosecutor’s office notified him of an assassination attempt against him. “We believed, as diplomats, that it would be possible to change him. “Mistake,” regrets the opponent, who admits, with a wry smile, “never having voted for Lukashenko.”

 Svetlana Tsikhanovskaïa, leader of the democratic forces in exile, is one of those Belarusians who have long walled themselves in apoliticism. “I grew up in a small town, where propaganda was everywhere. In an authoritarian regime, everyone has their own path to understanding what dictatorship is. » Before this stay-at-home mother became the face of the opposition, in 2020, she had only participated in “one election” in her life. It was 2001, when I was just 18 years old. “I voted like my parents, to try,” she slips. That is to say for the one for whom she has become the number one enemy, in a fabulous reversal of history.