Page 34 - bneMag February 2021_20210202

34 I Cover story bne February 2021
The attack on the NBU building followed several arson attacks on NBU members, including the burning down of former governor Valeriya Gontareva’s house on September 16 that year.
The NBU branded attacks on its staff and Gontareva as a “terror” campaign and named Kolomoisky as being responsible. Smolii unexpectedly
quit seven months later on June 2, citing “systemic political pressure” as the reason for his departure.
Belarus: peaceful protests
Mass protests broke out in Minsk
on August 9 following the disputed presidential election, which the Cen- tral Election Commission (CEC) claims was won by a landslide by incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukash- enko. No one believed the results and street fighting broke out the same day.
The OMON riot police brutally beat demonstrators, and more than 30,000 people have been arrested in the last six months.
But Belarusian protesters have specifically ruled out storming government buildings, as that would almost certainly lead to Russian troops being sent to Minsk
in support of Lukashenko.
Lukashenko came close to being ousted a few weeks later until Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he was willing to send a special military unit to quell the protests “if necessary” on August 27.
Some in Belarus have called for violence, but in a country where the population respect the "keep off the grass" signs,
the chances of a violent uprising
seem remote. Moreover, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
and the Co-ordinating Council that represents the protesters have so
far continued to call for restraint, determined to get rid of Lukashenko by peaceful and democratic means.
Still, Belarusian Twitter has been having fun with the events unfolding
in Washington DC, by likening Trump supporters to the minority of hardliners that have supported Lukashenko,
www.bne.eu
despite the almost universal rejection of the August election results.
In one meme doing the rounds on January 7, an image of US President Donald Trump and his son had been photoshopped so both appeared to be wearing body armour and carrying machine guns in a spoof of a famous image of Lukashenko and his son, who descended from a helicopter during the worst of the August riots also wearing body armour and carrying a gun.
North Macedonia: politicians bloodied in Skopje Parliament storming Around 200 nationalist demonstrators forced their way into the parliament
in Skopje on April 27, 2017, angered by the election of ethnic Albanian politician Talat Xhaferi as speaker, a move that paved the way for the appointment of a government led by the Social Democratic Union
of Macedonia (SDSM). Over 100 people were injured, including Zoran Zaev, the then opposition leader
and current prime minister. Footage from the parliament showed Zaev
with blood pouring from a cut on his forehead. MP Ziadin Sella was knocked unconscious and local television also showed one demonstrator ruthlessly pulling the hair of SDSM MP Radmila Sekerinska, who became defence minister in the new government.
The storming of the parliament followed almost daily protests organised by the civil association For United Macedonia. They included supporters of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE that
had been in power for the previous decade. Among those put on trial after the investigation into the attack were several top VMRO-DPMNE officials. The new government led by Zaev was approved by the parliament one month after the incident.
Serbia: lockdown frustrations boil over
The hardship caused by the spring lockdowns contributed to a hot summer in some SEE countries. In Serbia,
a group of several hundred anti- lockdown protesters broke into the parliament during a series of often violent mass protests in summer 2020.
Launched after President Aleksandar Vucic announced a curfew –
that many blamed on his decision to lift restrictions in time for the June general election, which was followed by a sharp upturn in infections –
the protests were hijacked by far-right groups who led attacks on police and state buildings. 71 people were arrested over the attack on the parliament.
Bosnia: presidency torched in Sarajevo's “Arab Spring”
Bosnian protesters set fire to the presidency and razed a regional government building, as well as torching politicians' cars, throwing some of them into a river in 2014. The unrest was sparked by fury over job losses and unpaid wages at failing privatised companies, sparking what some called Bosnia’s “Arab Spring”.
Moldova: election of oligarch’s
proxy sparks riot
Hundreds of protesters broke into the Moldovan parliament in January 2016 when a new government led by Pavel Filip was appointed. The vote took place amid mass protests outside the parliament and disruptions from inside by pro-Russian opposition lawmakers. When it was announced that Filip – seen by many as a proxy for influential local oligarch Vlad Plahotnuic, whose candidacy had previously been rejected – had been confirmed as
PM, demonstrators pushed their way inside the entrance to the parliament.
The previous storming of the Moldovan parliament was in 2009, when anti- communist protesters rampaged through the building in an angry response to the re-election of Vladimir Voronin’s Communist Party.
Romania: sheepdog protesters
flock into Parliament
Thousands of Romanian farmers and shepherds, some in traditional costume and ringing cowbells, forced their
way through the parliament gates in protest against new restrictions on the use of sheepdogs in 2015.