1995–1996 Belarusian constitutional crisis

The 1995–1996 Belarusian constitutional crisis was a confrontation between a Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and an opposition-dominated Supreme Council of Belarus. During that period, Lukashenko attempted to strengthen his powers and weaken parliamentary and judiciary control of his office.^[1]

Lukashenko wanted to make a referendum in 1995 that will give him a right to dissolve a parliament, change Belarusian state symbols to those similar to Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, introduce Russian language as a second state language alongside Belarusian, and increase integration with Russia.

On 11 April, the Supreme Council rejected three of four questions from referendum, refused to vote in favour and in response started a hunger strike merged with occupational strike (they stayed in the building and refused to exit), which resulted in so-called "Night in the Parliament". President Lukashenko wanted to disperse and intimidate the parliamentarians, so he sent the Militsiya and OMON to the Supreme Council, where he ordered the law enforcement and soldiers to evacuate the members of parliament outside and save them from an alleged bomb. Many members of the parliament, including Belarusian Popular Front leader Zianon Pazniak, refused, citing parliamentary immunity. However, the masked services forcibly and violently kidnapped opposition-minded legislators, dragging them by the hair or beating, and later. They later dropped off them at random locations in the capital, sometimes on the streets.^[2][3]

President Lukashenko said that the "plot against a Belarusian state" was crushed, but the real goal was to harass an opposition. Frightened opponents agreed to sign a referendum.

Belarus lost its white-red-white independence flag which was in official use since 1991 on 14 May 1995. On the same day, parliamentary elections took place, in which opposition parties gained majority of the seats in the Supreme Council.

On 15 August 1995, Belarusian trolleybus drivers began a strike. Two days later, workers workers, including the machinists from the Maskoŭskaja line, of the Minsk Metro joined the resistance. A day later, the authorities paid the striking trolleybus drivers, so they could suppress the metro strike. On 19 August, police and Ministry of Internal Affairs troops surrounded the union's bureau. On 20 August, President Lukashenko condemned the strike leaders in the TV programme "Resonance". He claimed that the Belarus Free Trade Union, supported by the "nationalist forces" from the Belarusian Popular Front, cooperated with Polish and American trade unions. On 21 August, striking workers gathered in the bureau again. Police detained 23 people this day, including union leaders Vladimir Makarchuk and Nikolay Kanach and Belarusian Popular Front politician Sergei Antonchik. 56 to 58 employees were later fired.

On 7 April 1996, Lukashenko meet in Moscow with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and signed a Treaty on Establishing Russian-Belarusian Union.

The Belarusian opposition responded with mass street protests, later called the Minsk Spring (or Belarusian Spring) that started on 24 March and lasted the entire year.

On 7 August, President Lukashenko refused a Polish-style round table negotiations with the opposition and began to prepare for another referendum, which would strengthen his presidential powers even more.

Lukashenko detained independent trade unions leaders, such as Sergei Antonchik, and tightened his grip on power.

In the summer, opposition initiated an impeachment against Alexander Lukashenko with 73 of 199 members of the Supreme Council supporting the procedure, citing as a reason constant violating of the constitution and ignoring the ruling of the Supreme Court. The crisis peaked in November, when Lukashenko surrounded the building with units subordinated to him, and the Supreme Court endorsed an impeachment while even Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir revolted against President Lukashenko. Then, Russia intervened with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and some State Duma members acting as mediators between parliamentarians and Lukashenko. They brokered a compromise that led many deputies to withdraw their signatures, effectively halting the impeachment process.

On 24 November 1996, members of parliament tried to gather together to vote against a referendum, but Lukashenko used Police to block them, effectively stripping them from real power.^[4]

Many members of the current Belarusian opposition consider the 1995–1996 constitutional crisis as a turning point when Belarusian democracy was destroyed and replaced with a new, authoritarian form of governance with de facto presidential (or super-presidential) domination, despite de jure calling a state organization a semi-presidential republic, by a "bloodles coup d'etat".^[5] It also resulted in increased dependency of the country from Russia. By 1996, repression against former Supreme Council members and other dissidents began.