Popular Front leaders repeat Lukashenka?
On April 9 the party control commission at the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front heard the “case” of Yuras Hubarevich, a deputy chairman of the party. The European Radio for Belarus has learned that the party’s main “commissars” Yury Khadyka and Halina Syamdzyanava were mostly interested in why his fellow party member cooperates with the For Freedom movement led by Alexander Milinkevich. Allegedly, Hubarevich is facing expulsion for his work with Milinkevich.
But Lyavon Barshcheuski, the chairman of the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, denounced to the European Radio for Belarus that his deputy was to be excluded from the party ranks.
“Nobody is going to expel him. He will be simply faced with serious questions. We demanded that he account for his work. He got scared, causing various speculations at web sites and internet forums. I think there is no question of expelling him…”, Barshcheuski said.
However, he also admitted that the party’s leadership has serious complaints as to how a deputy chairman copes with his duties. Barshcheuski clearly links Hubarevich’s failures with his simultaneous work as Milinkevich’s deputy.
“We have complaints about his poor performance. He is working. I am not saying that he is sitting idle. But he is actually working for another structure”, Barshcheuski said.
Ales Mikhalevich, another deputy chairman of the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, does not hide his positive attitude to Milinkevich and his For Freedom movement. At the same time, he does not take any leadership position in this movement. Apparently, he will be the next candidate for being grilled at the party’s control commission. But it has nothing to do with the For Freedom movement. He says there is an invisible power struggle within the party.
“This is connected with the internal party competition. The current chairman and the former chairman, Vintsuk Vyachorka, who was defeated at the previous contest, are discontented with the presence of other leaders in the national movement. They would like to have everything monopolized by them. Therefore, they are not satisfied with the people who support the unification of the national movement and who back a person with the highest rating among all of the opposition politicians”, Mikhalevich says.
“Traitor” Yuras Hubarevich totally agrees with his colleague’s viewpoint.
Hubarevich: “In fact, there is a certain struggle taking place inside the party. The results of this struggle could be observed during the latest election congress when Vyachorka’s position did not win the majority of delegates. It seemed then than Lyavon Barshcheuski was elected as an alternative chairman. But the struggle continues. This situation about my cooperation with Milinkevich is a formal pretext in order to carry out cleansing and to deprive the people, who have a different stance and views than Vyachorka and his group, from the influence in the party”.
Hunarevich says that accusations of his poor performance as a party chairman are unjustified. He says he will prove them wrong in the upcoming Saturday at the Council’s meeting when he will give an account of his activities. He agrees that he cannot work in a team when it is Vyachorka’s team.
The European Radio for Belarus also approached Alexander Milinkevich, the leader of the For Freedom movement, to comment about this situation. He says he feels very said that there is an internal quarrel for power within the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front.
“In a certain sense, this is a struggle inside the party. I regret it. Dictatorship is our common enemy. It is bad that a lot of effort is wasted in order to sort our relations between each other”, Milinkevich said.
Ales Mikhalevich, a deputy chairman of the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, compares what is now happening in the party to the authoritarian tendencies installed by Lukashenka in this country.
Mikhalevich: “The ban on public criticism towards the party’s leadership is basically the same as the ban on criticizing the Belarusian president and the government abroad. There is a provision that if a party member wants to support financially his or her fellow member, it is only possible at the consent of the party’s chairman. At the Office of the President, there is a department in charge of humanitarian aid. This department issues a permit for humanitarian assistance that comes from abroad. Authoritarian tendencies get strengthened in the party; and they resemble those taking place in the country”.
Hubarevich shared his colleague’s conclusions but was more cautious in his comment.
“It is difficult to comment as regards the recent decisions to ban public criticism of the party’s leadership, but the problem does exist”.
Party chairman Lyavon Barshcheuski does not see a problem here and talks only about the party discipline.
“I evaluate very highly the personal qualities of Mr Hubarevich and others. I have no personal grudge. They have a high determination as regards the Belarusian cause. But it is different from partisan tasks. These tasks are very concrete. If somebody does not like it, he should work in the other structures”, Barshcheuski said.
