Authoritarian political leaders in neighbouring Poland and Belarus have tested the limits of public tolerance in recent months. In both countries, they have provoked mass demonstrations. And in both cases, women have been in the …
Articles by: "Slawomir Sierakowski"
Belarusian university students marked the start of the academic year on 1 September by announcing a strike. They planned to gather in Victory Square and then march to the Ministry of Education, where they would …
Things are not going Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s way. Since the fraudulent presidential election on 9 August, the security services have been trying to carry out Lukashenko’s order to end the peaceful protests against his …
After weeks of nationwide protests over a fraudulent election on 9 August, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko seems to have realised that he has lost popular support for good. His last resort is to radicalise his …
Has this week of massive, mostly peaceful protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko been merely the calm before the storm? Following the fraudulent presidential election on 9 August, Lukashenko’s latest statements about the expanding protest …
Last Friday marked a symbolic breakthrough in Belarus. Thousands of people gathered at Independence Square in Minsk in front of the National Assembly, including many women and workers—the coalition that saved the opposition in its …
The protests that have roiled Belarus in the week since its stolen presidential election are evolving. Mass demonstrations gave way to more dispersed mobilisations on the model pioneered in Hong Kong. Because such ‘liquid’ protests …
Belarusian opposition leaders knew beforehand that they would be protesting the falsified result of the presidential election this past weekend, and had already adopted three governing principles. Their demonstrations must be absolutely peaceful, they must …
As expected, the European Parliament has torn into the European Council’s recently agreed budget and pandemic-response package. The €1.8 trillion price tag and proposed cuts to development funding, including science and research, have predictably met …
Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalised. In …
You can be talented, handsome, rhetorically skilled and politically brave, and yet suffer for it. In the long run, prudence and restraint are crucial ingredients of successful leadership, and it is precisely those two qualities …
As we’ve seen in recent years, domination by a populist party can lead to the deep polarisation of an electorate. But it also erodes the ethical fabric of political life. Unable to defeat populists through …