Dovgalo - about the first VNS: the decision of the President to address the people in the most difficult time was the salvation of the whole country

Today, it is important that the new generation of Belarusians know when the first meeting of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly took place, what decision the delegates made and why the Supreme National Assembly played such a colossal importance then. This comment to the correspondent sb.by drew the attention of Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives on human rights, national relations and the media Irina Dovgalo.

The parliamentarian addressed the events of 1991, when the USSR officially ceased to exist, which included Belarus:

- There was no single core of governance, international, cooperation, economic ties and logistics were collapsing like a house of cards, and the economy was flying down. And here it is important to note that the sharp decline in the economy is a real drop in the standard of living of people, the lack of work and wages, high inflation in the country. The crisis was just getting worse. Belarus lived under the BSSR Constitution until 1994. After the adoption of the Basic Law of already sovereign Belarus, when the institution of presidency appeared, a real people’s President was elected. It would seem that you can breathe, but there was not... The Supreme Soviet, which was still working at the time, zealously counterbalanced the young President on key issues – distribution of powers, land ownership, privatization, banking and a number of other extremely important topics. The head of state, seeing endless “kickbacks” from the false democrats, who even before his election “divided” all the largest objects of the country and even land, was really forced to appeal to the people to save Belarus from real plunder and collapse. Then it was decided to hold the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly.

Irina Dovgalo reminded that on October 19, 1996, workers and peasants, teachers and doctors, artists and writers, representatives of science and art – more than 4.5 thousand people – gathered in the capital from all over Belarus.

- The President, addressing the people, openly stated that "Only the people have the right to decide their fate." And the people decided! The first and most important thing is that people trusted their President, and he received real and tangible support, and in November 1996, by a referendum, the Constitution was amended and the powers of the President were expanded. The delegates adopted the first program of social and economic development of Belarus for 1996-2000, where all proposals of the Head of State were taken into account. Thus, the decision of the President to address the people in the most difficult time became a real salvation of the whole country. And the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly today shows us what the institution of democracy is in action, the parliamentarian stated.