EU must support peaceful Belarus protesters, France’s Macron says
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The European Union should support demonstrations in Belarus following the country’s presidential election, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
“The European Union must continue to be mobilised in support of the hundreds of thousands of Belarussians who are protesting peacefully for the respect of their rights, liberty and sovereignty,” Macron said on his Twitter feed.
Belarusians chanting “Step down!” filled the centre of the capital Minsk on Sunday in the biggest protest so far against what they said was the fraudulent re-election a week ago of longtime president Alexander Lukashenko.
Russia said it would offer Lukashenko military help if necessary, but there was no visible police presence at the protest, which attracted around 200,000 people, a Reuters reporter estimated. At least two protesters have died and thousands have been detained in a crackdown since the vote.
The atmosphere at the rallies, which wrapped up late into the evening, was celebratory on the whole, with people carrying the red and white flags used in Belarus after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union before Lukashenko restored the Soviet version four years later.
