Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk Received More Than Half Of Necessary Signatures

The Brest authorities are afraid of the European Belarus candidate.

This was told to the Charter97.org website by the representative of the initiative group to collect signatures for the candidate from the European Belarus civil campaign, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, her husband, coordinator of the "European Belarus" Andrei Sharenda.

- Our activity is noticed not only by the residents of Brest, where our pickets to collect signatures take place, but also by the authorities.

The head of Brest Western District № 1, Tamara Naumavets, came up to us and said that sound-amplifying equipment, which is used at our picket to collect signatures, is allegedly prohibited by law. She stated that there should be no music and people should not be invited through loudspeakers. We replied that there are no violations, no agitation, and it is not forbidden to use music at the signature picket. She immediately pulled in horns and said that she was giving us a verbal warning and would report it to the CEC.

- I wonder what song the authorities did not like so much.

- Basically, we have Belarusian music, but this time it was Viktor Tsoi's song "We Want Change". The authorities are so afraid of changes that they want to ban any mention of them. By the way, Viktor Tsoi's song became a protest song more than once, as it was forbidden to play on state radio stations and on television.

As for the pressure from the authorities, I have only one idea: they are under pressure from above, because we are the most active initiative group in Brest. Obviously, somebody does not like it. Besides, this is not the first time that our signature collection group has been pressured. There have been attempts to phone people, to prevent us from collecting signatures, and documents are constantly being checked. Every day there are employees of the bodies in the civilian clothes, there is an observation.

Again, the authorities simply do not like our activity. At the moment we have collected more than half of the necessary signatures and the work continues. I take this opportunity to invite everyone to our pickets to collect signatures. We can be found under white-red-white flags, flags with Pahonia and symbols of the European Union.

- What problems do the residents of Brest care about? How do people perceive European Belarus' pickets to collect signatures?

- One of the main problems that worries the citizens of Brest is the threat of losing their sovereignty. In Brest this topic is especially relevant, as people see the standard of living in the European Union and do not want our country to integrate with its eastern neighbor. Some people are quite radical about it and say that they will join the partisans. People are very concerned about the possible takeover, and this topic will become even more topical after the article in "Kommersant", which says that the two countries' economies will be united.

Another topic is the standard of living. People are leaving not only for neighboring Poland, but many Belarusians are already going to the UK. People are also concerned about the environmental topic: there's the Brest battery plant and BelNPP, which is a real time bomb. People who worked on the construction of the Astravets NPP came up to us and said that there is such a chaos there, that such managers should not be trusted even with building a public toilet.

As for the attitude towards us, the Brest citizens are very positive and take pictures against the background of national symbols. Foreign tourists come up, express support, ask about the European Belarus civil campaign, and what we are trying to achieve. Our picket to collect signatures has become a real event for the city.

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