The task of protecting people from destructive forces seeking to split the Belarusian society and throw the country back is coming to the fore, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Vladimir Andreichenko said at the opening of the fifth session of the lower chamber of Belarus' parliament of the seventh convocation on 2 April, BelTA has learned.
“The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the seventh convocation is opening its fifth session. It was preceded by a unique large-scale public dialogue that culminated in the Belarusian People's Congress. The comprehensive and frank discussion of the things that will determine the country's future made it possible to come up with a clear strategy of economic and socio-political development of the country. The will of the people, enshrined in the motto ‘Unity. Development. Independence', becomes an unconditional program of action for all branches of government. The MPs should be actively involved in the implementation of direct instructions of the head of state and the documents that determine the country's development in the current five-year period,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, the legislative agenda of the fifth session reflects the main priorities named at the congress - strengthening sovereignty, increasing the economic resilience amidst global uncertainty, maintaining social stability and promoting human capital. “The priority task today is to maintain security and protect citizens from destructive forces striving to split the Belarusian society and throw the country many decades back in its development. Indeed, we have withstood unprecedented pressure. However, as it turned out, unlike in many countries, our legislation is too liberal to allow symmetrical responses to new forms of extremism and information aggression. It is a direct responsibility of MPs to eliminate this shortcoming,” the parliament speaker noted.
Vladimir Andreichenko stressed that parliamentarians need to promptly adopt the law on prevention of the rehabilitation of Nazism. “As to public security, it is necessary to consider bills on the protection of personal data, countering extremism, criminal liability, mass events, labor relations, the media, advocacy and a number of others. Many of them are to be discussed at today's meeting. The further work on these bills should be taken under close control, since their adoption will allow us to more effectively thwart anti-state and anti-national activities. Most importantly, it will allow the authorities and the society to stay focused on the social and political reforms that are being dealt with by the Constitutional Commission set up by the presidential decree,” he added.
