“We know that they falsified the election results. I am the elected president of Belarus "

For Aleksandr Lukashenko, Svetlana Tijanóvskaya is a “poor thing”, a “puppet run by the West”. But the 37-year-old former English teacher, who stopped working to take care of her two children, has become the face of the Belarusian opposition, the person who has challenged the authoritarian leader, who thinks that a woman cannot be president. . It is the voice that has fueled a citizen movement demanding democracy in Belarus. "They voted for me to save the country, they see me as the symbol of changes," says Tijanóvskaya very seriously in a Skype interview from Lithuania. The opposition leader has completed one of the saddest traditions in Belarus and, like most critics, has gone into exile because her family is threatened. "I'm safe here," she remarks. She adds that she will return to Belarus as soon as she feels that neither she nor her children are in danger. Today, the Eastern European country is experiencing the largest mobilizations in its history. And this former English teacher has been the spigot.

Acknowledge that you are still afraid. "All citizens in Belarus feel fear, it is a reality, I also fear for them and my heart is there," says the opponent in a soft voice, dressed in a blue suit. “Belarusian citizenship will never be the same again. The flame will not go out, the people have already woken up and will no longer be able to live with a government that does not accept, the crimes they have committed cannot be forgiven ”, he laments. In the first four days of protests over electoral fraud in the August 9 presidential elections, some 7,000 were arrested, hundreds were injured and four were killed.

Tijanóvskaya never wanted to go into politics. These issues were not even discussed at home, despite the fact that her husband, blogger Sergei Tijankovski, became one of the best-known opponents. In May he was arrested and could not run for the presidential election. He is still imprisoned, says the opposition leader, like many other "political prisoners, hostages" of the Lukashenko regime. It was then that, “for love”, she decided to support him and introduce herself, without imagining the enormous movement that was going to accompany her on the way.

She then became the only prominent opponent to run, so the other two prospective applicants - the banker Víktor Babariko, also arrested, and the diplomat Valery Tsepkalo, who left the country - decided to support her. She was then joined by the campaign leaders of the other two main opponents and thus formed the trio of women that has shaken the foundations of the Belarusian regime and has put the authoritarian leader, known for his macho comments, on the ropes.

“I have become much stronger, but I was not prepared for what was going to happen; however, I feel that I have this responsibility ”, he acknowledges with a shrug. She feels like the "elected national president." “We know that they falsified the election results. People don't believe the results. They know they elected me president. I am the national leader of Belarus, ”insists Tijanóvskaya. Avoid the term opposition: "We are the voice of the majority."

The desired path for the country, she clarifies however, is not that other countries recognize her as president, in a model similar to that of Venezuela, where a good number of countries recognize Juan Guaidó as interim president, instead of Nicolás. Mature. “There is no need. That wouldn't solve anything. They also don't recognize Lukashenko. We need elections and for that, first Lukashenko has to leave ”, he remarks.

Born in Mikasevichi, not far from the border with Ukraine, Tijanóvskaya studied Pedagogy in the city of Brest. In between, she was one of the little girls who spent her childhood summers outside Belarus, supported by aid programs for children affected by the disaster at the Ukrainian Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986.

The opposition leader went to Ireland, to Roscrea. And she fell in love with the country. There she learned and perfected her English, earned a small salary working in a meat factory in her youth, and ended up becoming a teacher of that language in a Belarusian school. She taught until the family moved to a town near Minsk for their hearing-impaired son to undergo a cochlear implant operation and undergo treatment. She and her husband then decided that Tijanóvskaya should stay home to take care of the care. And so she has presented herself to Belarusian society, with the modesty of someone who does not want to remain in power but to evict Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 26 years, and to promote the transformation of Belarus.

“I am not a politician. I don't need the power. I want my children, my husband and I want to go back to frying chops, "she said in one of her campaign events, which mobilized real human tides in a country where any sign of activity against the regime is repressed. "Sveta! Sveta!" She was supported by tens of thousands of people who, even with the opposition outside the country, continue to chant her nickname in many mobilizations. In her electoral program there were only a few master lines and these were basically new elections in six months and the release of political prisoners.

“Citizens want to be able to choose a leader for themselves. Now they feel that they are a united nation and not separate people. I am proud that, despite everything that has happened, people in Belarus and in the diaspora are showing the world great respect and support, ”says the opponent.

Tijanóvskaya has taken many risks. She does not want to comment on what led her to leave Belarus. She will talk about it when the time is right. “More and more people have the feeling that we can change everything. Each one of us, the people, is the source of power if we unite, ”he says. Wait, he remarks, that this situation is resolved "soon"

Since her departure to Lithuania, where before the elections she had already sent her children with their mother to avoid possible reprisals, the opposition leader has met with prominent members of the governments of the European Union, which rejects the elections and has supported a new package of sanctions against government officials. She has also been able to talk in Vilnius with the US Undersecretary of State, who stressed that she had been "impressed" by her charisma. "All over the world they are attentive to the Belarusian citizenry, they are impressed by how they are fighting for their rights, but also negatively impacted by the other side, by how peaceful people have been treated," she says.

No one from Russia, whom Lukashenko has asked for help, has called her, he explains. From exile, she has called on the West to support the Belarusian citizens, to encourage a dialogue with Lukashenko to achieve her main objective: to hold new elections and that they are, at last, clean. She has also promoted a coordination committee with profiles of all kinds to promote transition talks.

"People go out into the streets and continue to do so because they are not willing to accept this president, and much less after the violence with which he has repressed the protesters who only demanded democracy," says Tijanóvskaya, who says that he is "in shock ”by the testimonies of police brutality.

“We have had enough of Lukashenko. You have to go "

His goals for the future may sound very simple, he says, but for Belarus they are the step that can change everything. “I want my children to grow up in a free, democratic country, where human rights are respected, where they can go out into the streets without fear and are not afraid of ending up in jail if they say something against the authorities; we are fighting for the future of our children, "says the former English teacher, who emphasizes that Belarusian citizens are" more than ready to change the authoritarian regime. "

Svetlana Tijanóvskaya says that she has never spoken with Alexandr Lukashenko. What would you say if they meet? "As a simple citizen of Belarus I would tell her that we have had enough of her, that it is time to go."