This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "BPF Party" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

BPF Party Партыя БНФ
Abbreviation	PBNF ПБНФ
Leader	Vadzim Sarančukoŭ[1][2][3]
Founder	Zianon Pazniak
Founded	30 May 1993; 31 years ago (1993-05-30)
Banned	14 August 2023; 19 months ago (2023-08-14)
Preceded by	Belarusian Popular Front "Adradžeńnie"
Headquarters	3-39th Building, Čarnyšeŭskaha St,Minsk,Belarus
Newspaper	Пагоня, Svaboda
Youth wing	BPF Youth
Membership(2009)	1,819
Ideology	Belarusian nationalism[4][5] Christian democracy[6][7] Liberal conservatism Pro-Europeanism Anticommunism
Political position	Centre-right[8] toright-wing[4]
National affiliation	Belarusian Independence Bloc United Democratic Forces of Belarus
European affiliation	European Conservatives and Reformists Party (global partner)[9]
International affiliation	International Democracy Union[10]
Colours	Red  White
Slogan	"Long Live Belarus!" (Belarusian:«Жыве Беларусь!»)
House of Representatives:	0 / 110
Council of the Republic:	0 / 64
Party flag
Website
narodny.org
Politics of Belarus Political parties Elections

TheBPF Party^[a] (Belarusian:Партыя БНФ,romanized: Partyja BNF;Russian:Партия БНФ,romanized: Partiya BNF) is a bannedpolitical party inBelarus. It wasde facto established after the split of thesocial movementBelarusian Popular Front (abbr. BPF; Belarusian:Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне",romanized: Bielaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie",БНФ) in 1999. The Belarusian Popular Front was founded during thePerestroika era by members of the Belarusianintelligentsia, includingVasil Bykaŭ. Its first and most charismatic leader wasZianon Pazniak.

After a 2005 decree by presidentAlexander Lukashenko on the restriction of the usage of the wordsБеларускі ("Belarusian") andНародны ("National", "Popular", "People's") in the names of political parties and movements,^[11] the party had to change its official name to "BPF Party".

The Belarusian Popular Front was established in 1988 as both a political party and a cultural movement, following the examples of thePopular Front of Estonia,Popular Front of Latvia and the Lithuanian pro-democracy movementSąjūdis. Membership was declared open to all Belarusian citizens as well as any democratic organization.

Its alleged goals are democracy and independence through national rebirth and rebuilding after thedissolution of the Soviet Union. The main idea of the Front was therevival of the national idea, including a revival of theBelarusian language. Initially, its orientation was pro-Western with a great deal of scepticism towardsRussia.^{[citation needed]}

The party was in favour of removing Russian as an official language in Belarus. Russian became an official language following the1995 Belarusian referendum, at the beginning of Lukashenko's rule, when a proposal for making Russian a state language received 83.3% support from the turnout.

Among the significant achievements of the Front was the uncovering of the burial site ofKurapaty nearMinsk. The Front claims that theNKVD performed extrajudicial killings there.

Initially, the Front had significant visibility because of its numerous public actions that almost always ended in clashes with police andKGB. It was BPF parliamentarians who convinced theSupreme Council of Belarus (the interim Belarusian parliament) to restore thehistorical Belarusian symbols: thewhite-red-white flag and thePahoniacoat of arms.^{[citation needed]} During Soviet-times people faced arrest in the streets for displaying white-red-white symbols in Belarus.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994 the BPF formed a so-called "shadow" cabinet consisting of 100 BPF intellectuals. Its first Prime Minister wasVladimir Zablotsky [pl]. It originally contained 18 commissions that published ideas and proposed laws and plans for restructuring the government and economy. Its last economic reform proposal was published in 1999. In opposition toAlexander Lukashenko's government, the party supports Belarus' entry intoNATO and theEuropean Union.^[12]

In the late 1990s, the Popular Front split into two parties, both of which claim to be the legitimate continuation of the original BPF. The party's conservative wing underZianon Pazniak became theConservative Christian Party – BPF (Belarusian:Кансэрватыўна-Хрысьціянская Партыя - БНФ,romanized: Kanservatyŭna-Chryścijanskaja Partyja BNF) while the moderate majority became today's BPF Party.

At the2004 legislative election the party was part of thePeople's Coalition 5 Plus (Narodnaja Kaalicyja Piaciorka Plus), which did not secure any seats. These elections fell (according to theOSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission^[13]) significantly short of OSCE commitments. Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously violated, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment. According to this mission, the principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2005Alaksandar Milinkievič, a candidate proposed by the BPF and Zialonyja (Belarusian Green Party) was elected the common democratic candidate for the2006 Presidential election.^{[citation needed]}

During the2010 presidential election the BPF Party nominated its own candidate for the presidency,Ryhor Kastusiou, who was then the Deputy Chairman of the BPF Party. According to the official results, he gained 1.97% of the votes.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, following an internal conflict, more than 90 further members left BPF Party, including several prominent veterans of the originalBelarusian Popular Front, such asLyavon Barshchewski,Jury Chadyka,Vincuk Viačorka. This was sometimes described as a "second split" of the Belarusian Popular Front.^[14][15]

In the Congress in September 2017, the new party leaderRyhor Kastusioŭ has been elected. The Congress decided also to nominateAlaksiej Janukievič and Belarusian-American attorneyJuraś Ziankovič [be] to the presidential office in the next elections. The final decision about the only candidate has to be made in the future.

On 12 April 2021, Kastusiou was reported to have been arrested^[16][17] by theBelarusian KGB as part of its crackdown on protestors following the results of the2020 Belarusian presidential election. Officially Kastusiou and BPF members were accused of trying to organise an illegal coup (in which president Alexander Lukashenko was to be assassinated); the RussianFSB together with the KGB have claimed their arrests did prevent the coup to happen.^[18] On 5 September 2022, Kastusiou was sentenced to 10 years in jail by theMinsk Regional Court.^[19]

On 14 August 2023 the BPF Party was banned by the Supreme Court of Belarus.^[20]

Election	Candidate	First round		Second round		Result
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1994	Zianon Pazniak	757,195	12.82%			LostN
1999	Zianon Pazniak	No winner announced
2001	EndorsedUładzimir Hančaryk[21]	965,261	15.65%			LostN
2006	EndorsedAlaksandar Milinkievič	405,486	6.12%			LostN
2010	Ryhor Kastusioŭ	126,999	1.97%			LostN
2015	Did not contest
2020	Alaksiej Janukievich	Not admitted to the elections

Election	Leader	Performance					Rank	Government
		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
1995	Zianon Pazniak				0 / 260	New	17th	Extra-parliamentary
2000	Vincuk Viačorka	Did not contest						Extra-parliamentary
2004		200,033	3.33%	New	0 / 110	0	5th	Extra-parliamentary
2008	Lyavon Barshchewski	72,770	1.35%	1.98	0 / 110	0	5th	Extra-parliamentary
2012	Alaksiej Janukievich	2,789	0.05%	1.30	0 / 110	0	8th	Extra-parliamentary
2016		88,511	1.72%	1.67	0 / 110	0	6th	Extra-parliamentary
2019	Ryhor Kastusioŭ	82,403	1.56%	0.16	0 / 110	0	7th	Extra-parliamentary

The party became an associate member of theInternational Democracy Union in 2007.

It was an observer member of theEuropean People's Party until 2017. Since 7 April 2017 the party is a member of theAlliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe.^[9] Its youth wing,BPF Youth, is a member of theEuropean Young Conservatives.

• 2021–CurrentVadzim Sarančukoŭ
• 2017–2021:Ryhor Kastusioŭ
• 2009–2017:Alaksiej Janukievich
• 2007–2009:Lyavon Barshchewski^[22]
• 1999–2007:Vincuk Viačorka

• Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic - the Belarusian government in exile
• Conservative Christian Party – BPF

• Official website(in Belarusian and English)

• 1988 establishments in Belarus
• 1988 establishments in the Soviet Union
• European Conservatives and Reformists Party member parties
• Banned political parties in Belarus
• Belarusian opposition
• Belarusian nationalism
• Conservative parties in Belarus
• International Democracy Union member parties
• Political parties established in 1988
• Political parties disestablished in 2023
• Political parties in Belarus
• Political parties in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
• Popular fronts in the Soviet Union
• Pro-independence parties in the Soviet Union
• Pro-European political parties in Belarus
• Right-wing parties in Europe
• Right-wing politics in Belarus
• Liberal conservative parties

• Articles containing Belarusian-language text
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with Belarusian-language sources (be)
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from October 2018
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with Ukrainian-language sources (uk)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2020
• Articles needing additional references from November 2010
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles containing Russian-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from June 2017
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2010
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016