In the summer of 1994, the President was elected in Belarus for the first time. Before that, the most important decisions in the country were made by the parliament – the Supreme Council. However, he did it for a long time and painfully. The deputies debated endlessly, fighting behind the scenes with each other. Meanwhile, the country was falling into the abyss, people were impoverished. Urgent measures were needed to prevent the worst-case scenario. And Belarus is changing its form of government – in 1994, the Constitution was adopted, the post of President was introduced for the first time in the country’s history (a little later, in 1996, as a result of popular support, the Constitution was amended in a referendum and the country became a presidential republic).
The adoption of the Constitution, the appointment of the date of the election of the head of state, the struggle for votes – and on July 10, 1994, Alexander Lukashenko won the presidential election. Since that moment, the history of the Institute of the presidency in Belarus has been counting down, and this year is an anniversary year.
During his presidency, Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly answered questions, including about the specifics of his work as head of state. His saying went down among the people and became an aphorism: “You don’t become presidents, you are born presidents.” “If you don’t naturally have a presidential (or a core, or something), this leaven, you won’t be president. You have to have this connection with the people. This is the main thing for the president. And it should be by nature,” Alexander Lukashenko explained. – A person, the President of the future, by nature should have a certain intuition, a certain feeling that will never let him down in his life. You can’t get that in life. You must have it by nature. If this is not the case, as some Western politicians, heads of state, including, unfortunately, our neighbors, well, then there is no President. Thank God that the presidents there do not have the same powers under the Constitution as in Belarus. For there would be trouble”.
Most recently, the President was asked what he considers the most difficult thing during the 30-year period during which he has been the head of state, preserving the sovereignty and independence of Belarus. And his answer was about justifying the high trust he received from the Belarusian people, who trusted him to run the country. “Every day – morning, evening, night – you wake up in a cold sweat and think: they trusted you, how not to let you down. This is the hardest thing for a real President,” Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview. The President stressed that in order to preserve the state, it is necessary to preserve its independence. “There can be no state without it. And if there is no state, then there is no us. We are slaves just without it. Therefore, the most important thing is to preserve it,” the Belarusian leader said.
“Neither with the left nor with the right, but with his people,” the future President went to the polls with this slogan. It adheres to this day.
Today Belarus is one of the successful examples of building a sovereign state. Our country demonstrates sustainable socio-economic development, political stability, interethnic and interfaith peace. The institution of the presidency played a key role in this, which is not just a public administration body, but an essential condition for preserving the sovereignty and independence of our country, as well as a mechanism for making strategic decisions and carrying out reforms that contribute to the development of the country.
