Is the Regime Afraid of the Round Table?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr9aZbyx6JQ

Pavel Latushka: Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Representative of the Cabinet for the Transition of Power, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Leader of the "Latushka Team and the Movement 'For Freedom'" faction within the 3rd convocation of the Coordination Council.

Recently, our initiative to organize a Round Table to resolve the Belarusian crisis has sparked active discussion. We expected this proposal to meet fierce resistance from Lukashenko and his propaganda. However, it must be acknowledged: we see certain skepticism and misunderstanding even from some democratic circles and media figures.

Our task is not simply to act reactively in the moment, but to proactively create conditions for real change.

For six years now, the regime has been trying to convince everyone that the democratic alternative represents nothing. But at the same time, it cannot forget about us for even a day and spends colossal resources and efforts of its special services fighting against us, attempting to destroy our institutions and structures.

But if we are "nobody" — why try so hard? Obviously, their actions contradict their own words. But these actions will not lead them to their desired result. We have not dissolved ourselves, have not crawled on our knees, have not walked into the sunset. And we do not plan to do so. We have a strategy, we have a system of institutions and recognition that have never existed before. We have a goal and we have the motivation to achieve it.

Lukashenka can claim as much as he wants that he will never sit at the same table with opponents. But history teaches us otherwise. In Poland, the leaders of the PRL said the same thing, swore they would not allow dialogue with "Solidarity." And then there was a series of closed meetings between the authorities and the opposition — and the Round Table.

At the same time, the Round Table is not a gift to the regime, it is a tool for returning agency to the Belarusian people. A tool for developing a civilized solution to the crisis. Yes, without the help of our Western partners, organizing this process will be extremely difficult, but to claim that someone should decide our future instead of us — this is a path to renouncing our own agency, our independence and subsequently — renouncing independence itself.

A real way out of the crisis for the country is possible only through National Dialogue. And there are examples of such dialogues, even in the most difficult conditions, with the most difficult contradictions. And they worked. Because society wanted it.

Our crisis must be solved by us ourselves. And it is within Belarusian society that an agreement must be reached that will return the country to normality.

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