How Europe’s Last Dictatorship Keeps Chugging Along

It is not Russia (but it does have the KGB)

(By Okras — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34558726)

In 2005, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Belarus “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe.” Belarus has been led by Aleksandr Lukashenko since 1994, when he won the country’s first presidential election in the post-Soviet period. He has not relinquished the office ever since. This year marks the thirtieth year that Lukashenko has ruled Belarus, making him the longest serving head of state in Europe.

Then, in 2012, Lukashenko seemed to lean into the idea that he was a dictator in a rare interview with Reuters. In the interview, Lukashenko said:

I am the last and only dictator in Europe and indeed there are none anywhere else in the world. You came here and looked at a living dictator and where else would you see one? There is something in this.

Since that interview, many people have agreed with Lukashenko’s assessment. He has been dubbed “the last dictator in Europe.” (Many people consider Vladimir Putin a dictator, but Russia has never really been considered a true member of the European community, dating back centuries.) While Lukashenko seemingly agreed that he was a dictator, he pushed back against the idea that dictators were inherently bad claiming that he was not a…