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7 E. Eur. Const. Rev. 43 (1998)
Yesterday as Tomorrow: Why It Works in Belarus

handle is hein.journals/eeurcr7 and id is 243 raw text is: Special Reports Explaining Lukashenka's hold on power Yesterday as Tomorrow: Why It Works in Belarus Alexander Lukashuk U rnike other states, ours is governed-excuse this indiscretion-by a president with integrity. So says Alexander Lukashenka about himself in the recently published book Alexander Lukashenka: First President of the Republic of Belarus. The well-known Belarusian painter Mikhail Savitski is also quoted in the book, praising Lukashenka as a myste- rious figure, in whose depths he a heroism and passion that make one forget daily life. Other quotations refer to the president as flexible but firm, open and shrewd and a man who sees things in the proper perspective. The book, which presents the reader with Lukashenka's vision for the future of Belarus, was published in June, then on the eve of the International Economic Forum in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. The highly publicized program for Lukashenka's planned three-day visit to the forum included inter- views, press conferences, and speeches, as well as two presentations of the English-language version of the book. But he was received so inhospitably that he felt compelled to shorten his stay to a mere day. Still, the audience did get a quick course in Lukashenka's convictions and political style. He warned of the dangers of American intervention in European affairs, accused the West of ignoring Belarus's needs relating to the Chernobyl disaster, and reproached the EU for adopting double standards in its relations with Belarus. He went on to attack NATO expansion and then, to top it off, explained that Switzerland's political system was far more totalitarian than that of the former Soviet Union. Upon returning to Belarus, Lukashenka charac- terized the forum as a zoo. His chief of administration issued a release stating that the Crans- Montana forum is not of a high enough level for a leader as powerful as Alexander Lukashenka. The village idiot and his rise to power Authoritarian leaders are not unique, and, at the end of this century, they are often largely ignored by the foreign press. In November 1996, for example, dozens of foreign journalists were covering the constitutional crisis in Belarus when Lukashenka dismissed the National Assembly and the members of the Constitutional Court and introduced his own constitution. The next day, the foreign media packed their bags and hastily bid their farewells. The journalistic consensus seemed to be: a coup d'6tat is big news, dictatorship is not. Since then, however, Belarus has climbed back onto the front pages. In an article of May 1998, devoted to the recent diplomatic drama in Minsk, the so-called Drozdy crisis, The Guardian referred to the Belarusian president as the village idiot of Europe. This may be funny, but it hardly explains the phenomenon that Lukashenka represents. Although village idiots have been known to make it to the top, they have seldom managed to retain power for long. Lukashenka, by contrast, continues to enjoy unwavering popular support (from approximately 40 percent of the population) and has already extended his term in office beyond what is constitutionally allowed. To under- SUMMER 1998 43

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