Workers increasingly dissatisfied with economic policies and step up protests in Belarusian regions

Due to wage delays, workers at Molodechno Blue Steel Plant have gone on strike and refused to come to work. Non-payment of wages, falling incomes, stoppages, reduced working hours and mass layoffs are gradually leading to growing tension among the population in the regions working at state enterprises. If protest activity escalates, the authorities would be ready to meet the workers’ demands. When presidential campaign starts, the authorities are likely to use internal reserves to remedy the situation in the labour movement and to temporarily freeze protest activity. Political activity and protest voting is therefore unlikely to increase during the election period.