PARIS: France is stepping up the pressure on Belarus longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko, with President Emmanuel Macron telling a prominent French weekly that Lukashenko must go.
The European Union said Thursday it does not recognize Lukashenko as president of Belarus because of large-scale protests by Belarusians who question the results of last months presidential election that Lukashenko claims he overwhelmingly won. Opposition members and some poll workers in Belarus say the vote was rigged.
Ahead of a trip Monday to Lithuania and Latvia, Macron was quoted in Sundays Journal du Dimanche newspaper as saying its clear that Lukashenko must go.
Whats happening in Belarus is a crisis of power, an authoritarian power that cant manage to accept the logic of democracy and is clinging on by force, the newspaper quotes Macron as saying.
In a speech Saturday to the virtual U.N. General Assembly, Belarus foreign minister warned Western nations against interfering or imposing sanctions over the countrys disputed presidential election and the government’s violent crackdown on protesters.
Thousands of Belarusian citizens have taken part in huge rallies since the Aug. 9 election, which they say was rigged in favor of Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years and just took a secretive oath of office for a new term.
–
Follow all AP stories on developments in Belarus at https://apnews.com/Belarus.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Comments
0 comment