Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich made a speech in the European Parliament on June 27.
On Tuesday, the EPP Group held a hearing on ‘Belarusian society: towards a modern political and national identity?’ Svetlana Alexievich opened the debate as a keynote speaker on “The ‘Red Empire’ is gone, but the ‘Red Man’, homo sovieticus, remains. He endures.”
Alexievich arrived in Brussels in the Belarusian civil society delegation which included human rights defender Ales Byalyatski, politicians Anatol Lyabedzka and Vital Rymasheuski, MPs Hanna Kanapatskaya and Alena Anisim.
In her speech, the Belarusian writer stressed that Communism was not dead once and for all and the end of the post-Soviet Red Man had not come yet. According to her, Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to take advantage of it.
“Freedom is a long way to go. Freedom cannot be brought into the country as Swiss chocolate,” she said.
In her opinion, the Belarusian opposition enjoys 30% backing at the utmost among the population and therefore it should have a single leader who would be a moral authority, but not a messiah.
Ukraine’s Maidan frightened Belarusians, which played into the hands of president Lukashenka who managed to gain more support. “The situation will come off well if Ukraine finds the strength to economically defeat Russia and becomes a normal European country,” the 2015 Nobel Prize holder in literature said.
belsat.eu
