The French news agency, quoting the French embassy in Minsk, reported - yesterday, Sunday - that the Belarusian government has ordered the French ambassador, Nicolas de Buyan de Lacoste, to leave.
The agency said that the ambassador left the country after being asked by Minsk before Monday, according to an embassy spokeswoman.
The spokeswoman explained that "the Belarusian Foreign Ministry requested that the ambassador leave before October 18," adding that the ambassador "farewelled the embassy staff and sent a video message to the Belarusian people, which will be broadcast tomorrow on the embassy's website."
The agency did not say why the ambassador was expelled, while Belarusian media reported that Minsk had recalled its ambassador, Igor Fesenko, from Paris.
On its website, the embassy said that Lacoste hosted on Wednesday representatives of Joffrey Pravdo (Declare the Truth), a non-governmental organization recently banned by the authorities.
Among the invitees was the organization's co-leader Andrei Dmitriev, one of last year's presidential candidates.
Relations between Belarus and the European Union have deteriorated since President Alexander Lukashenko won a comfortable victory last year and was re-elected in a vote the opposition says was fraudulent.
The European Union imposed a series of sanctions on the Belarus regime in response to Lukashenko's repression of his opponents.