If there is work there will be the UDF

The leaders of the Belarusian Independent Bloc (BIB) that was created on 27 October announced liquidation of the United Democratic Forces. Well-known Belarusian politicians comment this statement in the interview with www.udf.by. Their common opinion is that it is too early to give up the UDF. Especially, if one takes into account that the BIB has not shown its worth yet.

"We hold a press conference on Thursday. There we will express the party’s position on a number of questions, including this one. If there is work there will be the UDF. If there is no work with the Belarusian electorate, then the UDF will disappear from the political arena", the head of the United Civil Party Anatol Labiedzka told to www.udf.by. "And if the work of the recent months continues, then this means that the coalition is able to function".

"The UDF would have dissolved if the United Civil Party or, for example, the Belarusian Party of Communists had seceded from it. Because it is these organisations that do most of the practical work. And if the organisations that are leaving the UDF are those that are de jure in the coalition but de facto do not participate in the implementation of even those things they vote for, then this won’t hit our work or activity. This will affect only quantitative indices of the coalition membership."

"I’ve read the Draft Declaration (on the formation of the BIB – the author). There isn’t any word there about struggling with the regime", the ex-chairman of the BPF Party Liavon Barshcheuski said in the interview with the correspondent of www.udf.by. "Communism and fascism that the new bloc condemns are historical threats. But there is in fact a modern threat – lukashism. The founders of the BIB have forgotten about it, and that’s troubling."

The leader of the Belarusian Party of Communists who caught more of it from the founders of the BIB also thinks that the UDF remains a viable organisation:

"We’ll wait and see. But I personally am against a disintegration of the UDF. I guess this is the result of the work of special-service agents planted into the opposition. Today the authorities profit from the growing number of various associations. The struggle is now led not against the authorities, but to purge the ranks, to appraise who is ideologically closer. All this weakens us. The ideas of the BPF Party differ a lot from those of the Belarusian Party of Communists. But separately we will not reach our goals. And the country will still be governed by Lukashenka.

If we want him to govern forever and the system created by him to exist forever then we should seek what separates us. But if we want to change the situation and to create conditions under which a real struggle for the voter, for implementation of our programme goals will have sense, then we have to unite against the dictatorship. We have to unite for the creation of a democratic Republic of Belarus. Without this the existence of various parties, movements, ideas, and platforms in Belarus does not have any sense."

Liudmila Maroz, Aliaksandar Kutsitski