Emmanuel Macron meets Belarusian opposition leader, offers to mediate crisis

French President during his latest trip to Lithuania met with Belarus’ opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The French President has also called European mediation in the Belarus political crisis. Belarus is currently in the grips of massive anti-government protests that are demanding the resignation of the country’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Macron pushes for Europen mediation in Belarus crisis

The August 9 presidential results claimed that Lukashenko had won by a landslide, but opposition leaders and poll workers have claimed that the election was rigged and fraudulent. Since then tens of thousands of protesters have taken the streets every week and have demanded that Lukashenko step down. Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. The Belarusian police have used violent tactics and mass arrests to suppress the protests but this has only resulted in international condemnation with many in the international community accusing Belarus of violating human rights.

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According to reports, after meeting the opposition leader Macron said: “We had a very good discussion. Now we need to be pragmatic and to support Belarus people and we will do all that”. In addition, Macron has also praised the courage shown by Tsikhanouskaya who has continued the campaign against Lukashenko from Lithuania and has sent messages of support to the thousands of protesters in Belarus.

As per reports, Macron hopes that the European Union will adopt sanctions against Belarus officials this week. The UK and Canada have already announced sanctions against the Belarusian President and other top officials including his son. The large scale protests have also led to the EU declaring that they do not recognize the August 9 presidential election and as such do not recognize Lukashenko as the country’s President.

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Lukashenko has rejected repeated calls for him to step down. In the past Lukashenk0o had claimed that the mass protests were funded by the United States in order to destabilize the country.

(With AP inputs, Image: AP)