President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is beginning “cautious flirtations with the national idea.”
Political scientist Igor Tyshkevich, who fled from Belarus to Ukraine, stated this on air on the YouTube channel “Khvilya”, the correspondent of “PolitNavigator” reports.
“A small example. Against the backdrop of reports in the Russian press about the approval of the creation of a unified parliament, the head of the Belarusian Popular Front, Mr. Kostusev, was invited to the ideological work department of the presidential administration of Belarus to discuss ideological work for the coming year,” Tyshkevich said.
He believes that Lukashenko is reacting in this way to the sentiments that exist among Belarusian business.
“He responds to changes in society. Belarusian values have become popular among the active part of society, including businessmen. For example, since 2009, advertising in Belarusian is simply a rule of good manners for large corporations. Lukashenko simply picks up this trend,” Tyshkevich said.
The day before, according to media reports, the chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front party, Rygor Kostusev, handed over to the deputy head of the presidential administration Andrei Kuntsevich an action plan for 2020 “to strengthen patriotism and Belarusian national identity.”
The plan includes “wide and massive” celebrations of Mother Language Day on February 21, Freedom Day on March 25, the 100th anniversary of the Slutsk armed uprising (against the Bolsheviks in 1920), Embroidery Day and a number of other events.
Kostusev proposes to involve the ruling party “Belaya Rus” and the pro-government Belarusian Republican Youth Union in these traditional opposition events.