Lukashenko renews talk of amending the Belarusian constitution • Медуза • RIMA — архив российских независимых медиа

Lukashenko renews talk of amending the Belarusian constitution

During a visit to a Minsk hospital on Friday, November 27, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko seized the opportunity to share his thoughts on the importance of amending the country’s constitution.

According to Lukashenko, changes to the Belarusian constitution must be “beneficial for the country,” to keep it from collapsing “later on.”

“I am a supporter of a new constitution. Not because you need some kind of democracy. It’s not about democracy. What worries me in this situation is this: such a constitution can’t be handed over to an unknown president. There will be trouble,” Lukashenko said, as quoted by his press service.

In his words, Belarus, like Russia and Kazakhstan, has “a very serious constitution.”

Perhaps, there are three advanced states that have such a serious and tough constitution, where everything depends on the president’s decision. From this point of view, understanding that God forbid a person comes and wants to start a war and so on...Yes, we need to create a new constitution, but one that’s beneficial for our country, so that the country doesn’t collapse later on.

Lukashenko has been talking about Belarus adopting a new constitution since 2016. He returned to this question in mid-2020, amid his presidential campaign.
In particular, Lukashenko said that he has already been offered “several options,” but they were “unsuitable.” Lukashenko also promised that amendments to the existing constitution would be prepared within two years and that the changes would be adopted through a referendum.
In October 2020, Lukashenko met with 12 detainees at the KGB pre-trial detention center in Minsk, most of whom are considered political prisoners. During the meeting, they discussed amending the Belarusian constitution. “Half of them, as far as I understand, are lawyers and they understand perfectly well that you can’t write the constitution on the street,” Lukashenko said (apparently referring to the ongoing opposition protests in Belarus).