Vadim Zhartun: 8 reasons why Lukashenko should leave

Publicist Vadim Zhartun published a kind of appeal to the participants in the new protest actions that will take place this weekend across Belarus:

Lukashenko must leave because he is hopelessly outdated: in the 26 years he was in power, the world has changed dramatically, and a whole generation of people has grown up in Belarus who have never lived in the USSR and do not feel painful nostalgia for it. This nostalgia and fear of change were the basis of Lukashenka’s popularity, but they are no longer there, and neither is popularity.

Lukashenko must leave because he failed to cope with the economy: Belarus, which has not experienced either wars or revolutions, with a huge production and human potential, has become the poorest country among its neighbors, lagging behind them many times in terms of GDP per capita.

Lukashenko must leave because he turned the law into a slave yoke: loyalists and close associates can do whatever they want in order to preserve power, while for everyone else the law has become a club that they beat on the head just for striving to be the masters of their lives and their country.

Lukashenko must leave because he deliberately destroyed the electoral system: by making independent observation as difficult as possible, banning sociology and putting pressure on election commissions, he made an attempt on the foundations of the constitutional order of the Republic of Belarus.

Lukashenko must leave because he lost the election: the exit poll data, backed up by photographs of ballots, lines of people with white ribbons at polling stations and protocols of polling stations where there were no falsifications, clearly indicate that Tikhanovskaya won in the first round.

Lukashenko must leave because he is lying: he is lying about his "nationwide" support, about his "grandiose" successes and achievements, about numerous threats from the East and West, even when it is obvious to everyone. With his lies, he is trying to convince the Belarusians that they are nothing, and the siloviki - that they must fight with their own people.

Lukashenko must leave because he unleashed terror against the Belarusian people: on his criminal order, Belarusians were shot at, Belarusians were beaten, tortured and humiliated. Both peaceful demonstrators and completely random people became its victims.

Lukashenko must leave because each of these reasons is already more than enough, and all together they add up to a portrait of an elderly, mediocre, deceitful and cruel dictator who has no place at the head of such a beautiful, modern, European country as Belarus.

Belarus deserves the best, long live Belarus!