The pressure is increasing on Alexander Lukashenko. The European Union does not recognize the re-election of the Belarusian president and will sanction those responsible for electoral fraud and violence that followed the election, announced on Wednesday August 19 the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, after 'an extraordinary summit by videoconference.

The presidential election "was neither free nor fair and the EU does not recognize the result," said Charles Michel. For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel immediately expressed her support for the Belarusian demonstrators. "We have no doubt that there was massive fraud in the presidential election," she said, adding that for the EU, "it is clear that Belarus has to find its own way. This has to happen. do it through dialogue and there must be no external intervention ".

The day before, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Charles Michel had spoken with Vladimir Putin about his ally, Alexander Lukashenko. The objective of the Europeans: to promote a dialogue with the opposition which protests against the results of the presidential election.

Since her exile in Lithuania, the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on Wednesday called on the European Union to show firmness and to reject the results of the "fraudulent" presidential election of August 9. "I ask you not to recognize these fraudulent elections. Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world," said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in English in a video addressed to the Council of Europe and posted on YouTube.

On Tuesday evening, several thousand demonstrators gathered again in Independence Square in Minsk, waving the opposition's red and white flags and calling for the resignation of Alexander Lukashenko, who claims to have won 80% of the ballot.

With AFP

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