In the clearest sign yet that his days as Belarusian president may be numbered, Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s leader for the past 26 years, was met by jeers and chants of “Go Away!” as he visited one of the few factories that has not yet gone on strike to protest his re-election.
A week after Mr Lukashenko was declared winner of the hotly contested presidential election where his rivals had been jailed or barred from running, opposition to his rule has permeated almost all layers of Belarusian society.
Dressed in overalls, several thousand workers from Minsk’s largest factories including the showcase Minsk Tractor Works, one of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world, downed their tools on Monday morning and marched to the MZKT off-road vehicles factory where Mr Lukashenko was to meet the workers.
“We came here to tell him that he’s lost the election and that he needs to go away,” 62-year old Mikhail Marinich from the Minsk Electrotechnical Plant, who was holding a megaphone, told The Telegraph.
“Our president is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,” the bespectacled man said, referring to a jailed blogger’s wife who ran against Mr Lukashenko and was forced to leave the country after the election day.
