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Greens call on left groups to unite to pick single presidential aspirant

The Belarusian Party of Greens on July 7 issued a statement calling on left and “socially oriented” groups to unite and pick a single presidential aspirant to run in Belarus’ forthcoming election, BelaPAN reports.

This past May, Greens Deputy Chairman Yury Hlushakow announced his plans to stand in the election.

The party said in its statement that it stongly doubted that the United Pro-democratic Forces, the country`s major opposition coalition, would be able to select one person who will try to get access to the ballot in the election. “So, the responsibility rests on the shoulders of Belarus’ left groups,” the party said.

“Today almost all presidential aspirants have in fact neoliberal programs or economic programs that differ little from each other,” the statement reads. “The current authorities have been following exactly this path in the last decade: its moves to abolish social benefits, introduce tuition fees, fee-based medical services and employment contracts, and scrap progressive taxation cannot be described other than as capitalist reforms. The authorities’ compliance with requirements of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank about the partial devaluation of the Belarusian rubel, the freeze of wages and other payments, the revision of the Chernobyl nuclear accident`s consequences, the increasing external debt owed to international financial organizations and preparations for mass privatization is also part of this path.”