After his meeting with Emmanuel Macron, visiting Lithuania, the Belarusian opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya will deliver a speech to French parliamentarians.
At the same time, the French President defends the idea of mediation led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told AFP on Tuesday that she was going to deliver a speech in the French parliament after meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, who was visiting Lithuania.
"We received an invitation to address the French parliament and we accepted it," she said in Vilnius, where she fled after a contested election in Belarus last month.
Important meeting for Tikhanovskaya
This meeting was the most important for Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa since the presidential election of August 9, of which she claims the victory against the Belarusian president Alexandre Lukashenko.
The opponent has already met EU foreign ministers and the leaders of Poland and Lithuania, two European states neighboring Belarus.
"We will do our best as Europeans to help mediation," Emmanuel Macron told reporters, in English, after his meeting with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Vilnius.
He said he intended "to return to OSCE mediation in order to make progress".
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had offered to help negotiate an end to the crisis in Belarus.
Is Macron going to "involve Russia"?
Emmanuel Macron "supports the idea of mediation because he understands that powerful countries must be involved to start negotiations with Lukashenko. He is ready to help on this point," said the Belarusian opponent.
"I think he will talk about Belarus with the Russian side and that he will do everything possible to involve Russia in these negotiations," she added.
According to her, the crisis should be resolved "as soon as possible" and new free and fair elections should be held before the end of the year.
The mass protests which have continued in Belarus since the election are violently suppressed by the regime.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's husband Sergei remains in prison accused of trying to overthrow the government.
According to Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, Emmanuel Macron promised to "do everything possible to release all political prisoners" in Belarus.
"For Emmanuel Macron, it is not only political interest, he sees it as interest as a human being because our rights are violated, we have a dictatorship. He understands the people who fight for their rights. rights, ”she added.