Charlemagne Prize Winner Tichanovskaya: “Strategy to Tire This Regime”

The Charlemagne Prize winner Tichanowskaja has in the daily topics made it clear that the opposition in Belarus will not be intimidated. The fight is now taking place underground – in small steps, “but every day”.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya has expressed confidence that she will win the fight for freedom in her country in the long run. In an interview with the daily topics said the Charlemagne Prize winner that she was certain that the regime of ruler Alexander Lukashenko “will end”. The people of Belarus wanted democratic change. The opposition’s strategy now is “to tire this regime out.”

This could still “take some time and we don’t know how long”. But you are “ready to fight”. She appealed to the West to keep up the pressure on the government. There are no more mass demonstrations in the streets of Belarus because people fear being put in prison for them. The best fight is therefore “underground, where we take these small steps, but every day”.

It’s about actions that keep the pressure on Lukashenko so that he understands that “it’s not over yet”. “Despite terror and violence, we are alive,” said the politician.

“A common struggle” with Ukraine

Tichanovskaya noted that the world public is now paying more attention to the war against Ukraine than to the rebellion of civil society in Belarus. But it is a common fight, she clarified. Without a free Ukraine there would be no free Belarus and without a free Belarus there would be no secure Ukraine. “It is our duty as neighbors to support Ukraine in this difficult struggle,” she said.

Previously, Tichanovskaya had been awarded the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen together with the two Belarusian civil rights activists Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Zepkalo. For her it means “that European values ​​are very important to us and that Europe sees us”. “Europe sees what we are doing in our fight for democratic values ​​that we all share,” stressed Tichanovskaya.

The Charlemagne Prize does not belong to her or the trio of women honored with it, but to all Belarusians who have shown tremendous effort and dedication in their peaceful, non-violent fight against tyranny.