Populism and motherhood
Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime in Belarus has declared 2026 the “Year of the Belarusian Woman”. Under this banner, it has launched a large-scale media campaign promoting families and celebrating mothers. Not new to Belarus, the instrumentalization of family policy reflects a broader global pattern in which populist regimes appeal to traditional values and mobilize anti-gender narratives.
April 21, 2026 -
Tatsiana Astrouskaya
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AnalysisIssue 3 2026Magazine
Photo: kirill_86 / Shutterstock
In 1994, Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power on an anti-corruption ticket. Yet his first election campaign also placed considerable emphasis on family and social policy. His electoral programme, published in the newspaper Narodnaya Volia (The People’s Will) on June 14th 1994, promised extensive state support for families, motherhood and childhood. Among the proposals were childcare allowances, as well as housing loans and subsidies for young families.
Even Lukashenka’s anti-corruption rhetoric was framed in moral and paternal terms. He appealed to voters by presenting the fight against corruption as a matter of protecting the nation’s future. During the campaign he declared that corruption must be eradicated “for the sake of our little children”. At the same time, he used anti-corruption as a pretext to launch attacks on political opponents, which resulted in effectively removing from power of the then chairman of the Supreme Soviet, democrat Stanislaŭ Shushkevich.
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belarus, demographic, family policy, populism, women
