Leader Alaksej Janukevich Headquarters Minsk, Belarus Political position Right-wing | Founded 1988 (1988) Youth wing BPF Youth | |
 | ||
Ideology Belarusian nationalism,
Christian democracy,
Conservatism,
Pro-Europeanism | ||
The BPF Party (Belarusian: Партыя БНФ, Partyja BNF or ПБНФ PBNF), is a political party in Belarus. It was founded as the social movement Belarusian Popular Front "Revival" or BPF (Belarusian: Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне", Biełaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie" or БНФ (BNF) during the Perestroika era by members of the Belarusian intelligentsia, including Vasil Bykaŭ. Its first and most charismatic leader was Zianon Pazniak.
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After a 2005 decree by president Alexander Lukashenko on the restriction of the usage of the words Беларускі ("Belarusian") and "Народны" ("National", "Popular", "People's") in the names of political parties and movements, the party had to change its official name to "BPF Party".
Early history
The Belarusian Popular Front was established in 1988 as both a political party and a cultural movement, following the examples of the Popular Front of Estonia, Popular Front of Latvia and the Lithuanian pro-democracy movement Sąjūdis. Membership was declared open to all Belarusian citizens as well as any democratic organization.
Its alleged goals are democracy and independence through national rebirth and rebuilding after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The main idea of the Front was the revival of the national idea, including a revival of the Belarusian language. Initially, its orientation was pro-Western with a great deal of scepticism towards Russia. At one point they propagated the idea of a union from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea that would involve Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Lithuania, similar to Józef Piłsudski's "Międzymorze".
The party was in favor of removing Russian as an official language in Belarus. Russian became an official language following a national referendum in 1995, at the beginning of the Lukashenko era, when a proposal for making Russian a state language received 83.3% support from the turnout.
Among the significant achievements of the Front was the uncovering of the burial site of Kurapaty near Minsk. The Front claims that the NKVD performed extrajudicial killings there.
Initially, the Front had significant visibility because of its numerous public actions that almost always ended in clashes with police and KGB. It was BPF parliamentarians who convinced the Supreme Soviet (the interim Belarusian parliament) to restore the historical Belarusian symbols: the white-red-white flag and the Pahonia coat of arms. During Soviet-times people faced arrest in the streets for displaying white-red-white symbols in Belarus.
In 1994 the BPF formed a so-called "shadow" cabinet consisting of 100 BPF intellectuals. Its first Prime Minister was Vladimir Zablotsky. It originally contained 18 commissions that published ideas and proposed laws and plans for restructuring the government and economy. Its last economic reform proposal was published in 1999. In opposition to Alexander Lukashenko's government, the party supports Belarus' entry into NATO and European Union.
1999 split and modern history
In the late 1990s the party's conservative wing under Zianon Pazniak split from the main BPF to found an independent political party – the Conservative Christian Party BPF (Kanservatyŭna-Chryścijanskaja Partyja BNF). The Party claims to be the only true BPF successor and does not recognize the "other" BPF. It also distances itself from the rest of the Belarusian opposition and labels them "regime accomplices".
At the 2004 legislative election the party was part of the People's Coalition 5 Plus (Narodnaja Kaalicyja Piaciorka Plus), that did not secure any seats. These elections fell (according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission [1]) significantly short of OSCE commitments. Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously violated, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment. According to this mission, the principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored.
In October 2005 Alaksandar Milinkievič, a candidate proposed by the BPF and "The Greens" Zialonyja party was elected the common democratic candidate for the 2006 Presidential election.
During the 2010 presidential election the BPF Party nominated its own candidate for the presidency, Grigori Kostusyov, who is the current Deputy Chairman of the BPF Party. According to the official results, he gained 1.97% of the votes.
International relations
The party became an associate member of the International Democrat Union in 2007.
It is an observer member of the European People's Party. Its youth wing, BPF Youth, is a member of the European Young Conservatives.