Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for three decades, has some wise insight on what it takes to be a president: Be a man.
“God forbid that a woman is elected in Belarus,” the president, who has been called Europe’s last dictator, told journalists on Thursday, arguing that the job of president in Belarus is much harder than in the United States. “It’s the hardest work, you shouldn’t burden a woman like that.”
Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, said Belarus may eventually come to a style of politics like that of the U.S. “But for now it is different. This is not a feminine style,” he argued, adding that he believes “a woman should be a woman.”
“We should not shift our responsibilities to women. I admire women, I do not diminish their role at all. But they should be there for us to lean on, a strong shoulder.”
Lukashenko, who is running for another term in the country’s upcoming Jan. 26 presidential election, may have been referring to his rival in the previous 2020 vote, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Tsikhanouskaya ran for president after her husband, a leading opposition candidate, was arrested and jailed during that election campaign. The vote sparked mass protests that nearly caused Lukashenko’s downfall — but that were eventually crushed in a brutal Russia-backed campaign to suppress opponents.
Now living in exile, Tsikhanouskaya is the main face of the pro-democracy opposition. She has urged Belarusians to “reject this farce” because “it’s a sham with no real electoral process, conducted in an atmosphere of terror.”
But that doesn’t trouble Lukashenko, who also claimed in his Thursday remarks that a person doesn’t become president but is “born to be president.”
“A person by nature must have basic qualities that will be useful to him as president.”
In addition to possessing such qualities, Lukashenko also strengthened his power in January by signing a law guaranteeing himself immunity, lifelong protection and state-provided property upon his resignation from the presidency.
