‘Europe’s last dictator’ finally finds the limits to power: taxing the unemployed during a recession

‘Belurusian leader Alexander Lukashenko calls himself “Europe’s last dictator”: he’s a thug who steals elections and sends opposition politicians to forced labor camps, the kind of guy who can get away with arresting a one-armed man for clapping — but when he imposed a “social parasite tax” on unemployed people in the recession-devastated country, it proved too much.
The mass-marches in the capital of Minsk have now spread to Gomel, the country’s second city, with more demonstrations nationwide. 470,000 people are caught by the tax, but fewer than 10% have paid it.’
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