Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

What for Politician-Businessman Came to Belarus?

www.udf.by

The visit of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pursues exclusively pragmatic interests, many a Belarusian politician believes. European values will not be discussed at the meeting of Berlusconi and Lukashenka.

"The well-known eccentricity of the Italian prime minister does not make him an authorized representative of Europe of values", - told www.udf.by the member of the BPF Party Vincuk Viachorka. In this regard, the arrival of Berlusconi, according to the representative of the Belarusian Popular Front, is not such a big event as Alexander Lukashenka’s contacts with European leaders "with a calmer, calibrated reputation" might be.

However, the official media will present the visit as a long-awaited breakthrough on the foreign policy front, says V. Viachorka.

The chairman of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka calls the Prime Minister of Italy "a politician-businessman", for whom even European values "are traded".

"Berlusconi’s arrival in Belarus means that someone should beat a path to the Red House. And no one would like to take this mission upon themselves. It will be easier for the second or third to walk it: there will be fewer questions about values."

According to Anatol Lyabedzka, being "prone to political adventurism", Silvio Berlusconi is most suitable for this pioneering mission.

The UCP leader evaluates negatively not the visit of the Italian politician but the fact that "there is nothing in the briefcase of Berlusconi concerning European values":

"He will not discuss here the issue of free elections, and he will not speak about freedom of mass media. He has his own problems in Italy".

Anatol Lyabedzka supposes that at the negotiations Lukashenka and Berlusconi will address issues of health improvement and adoption of Belarusian children. "Some economic issues that are advantageous to him (Berlusconi - aut.) personally or for business organs behind him" will also be discussed.

"This will not in any way deal with interests of 10 million citizens of the Republic of Belarus and shows only one thing: we need to rely on our personal efforts", summarized Mr. Lyabedzka.

The leader of the Belarusian Party of Communists Siarhey Kalyakin, on the contrary, believes that the issue of recreation of Belarusian children in Italy and some economic issues "can be solved for the benefit of the Belarusian people."

But from a political point of view, Silvio Berlusconi's visit to Minsk states that Italy may "ignore the common position of the European Union regarding Belarus," said Siarhey Kalyakin. And this indicates that the EU has no approaches to "Belarusian issue", the politician believes.

"In political point of view it is, in my opinion, the problem of the EU and Berlusconi himself, but not the Belarusian one", said the leader of the opposition Communists.

It should be recalled that the head of the Italian government Silvio Berlusconi visits Belarus on November 30. As President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenka said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, the main topics for discussion between Lukashenka and Berlusconi during the visit of the Prime Minister of Italy in Belarus will be economic and trade cooperation, development of the legal framework of relations between the two countries, as well as prospects of investment projects.