Joint statement by:
· the Chair of the Delegation for relations with Belarus, MEP Juozas OLEKAS, and
· the European Parliament's Standing Rapporteur on Belarus, MEP Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS
on the second anniversary of the fraudulent presidential election in Belarus
Brussels, 9 August 2022 - "Two years have already passed since the massively falsified presidential election in Belarus. It also two years since the people of Belarus rose up against the dictatorship - they came out to vote in large numbers and then, in view of the massive frauds, hundreds of thousands of them rallied against the regime which stole the election.
It is painful to see that the people of Belarus have been experiencing systematic repression in its worst forms ever since. The regime has continued silencing any critical voices while, externally, Lukashenka has sold large swathes of his own country's sovereignty to his Kremlin sponsors. As a consequence, Belarus is increasingly looking like a Russian military district, acting as an accomplice in the Kremlin's horrendous war of aggression against Ukraine - all this against the will of the Belarusian people. These latest developments illustrate the fact that the fight against Lukashenka's illegitimate, dangerous regime is not only an internal matter for the Belarusians to settle: it is our concern as well, as it poses a clear threat to our entire continent, as illustrated by the last year's state-engineered migration crisis and by the diversion of the Ryanair civil flight which, as the ICAO confirmed, was planned and carried out purposefully by Lukashenka's security apparatus. [...]
Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP