On 2 October students of the Belarusian Working Group from Natolin Campus of the College of Europe have met Alaksandar Milinkievič, Belarusian politician, leader of the Belarusian opposition party.
Students had an opportunity to discuss with our guest of honour the current issues concerning recent parliamentary elections in Belarus.
Milinkievič was born in 1947 in Hrodna. After graduating from the University of Hrodna, he passed his aspirantura at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Science of Belarus.
Between 1980 and 1984 he was in charge of the (then forming) Faculty of Physics at the University of Sétif in Algiers. He also served as a docent at the University of Hrodna between 1978 and 1980, and then from 1984 on to 1990. At that time he also started to cooperate with local city authorities as a chief of one of the committees. Soon he reached the rank of vice-mayor of the city.
In 2001 he was the chief of staff of Siamion Domaš, one of the opposition leaders running for president in the 2001 presidential elections of Belarus.
In October 2005 he was chosen by the United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006.
On 12 December 2006 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament.