11 août 2020, 22:39 | tagesschau.de
Autocrats from all over the world have learned a lot from Lukashenko: the leaders of Venezuela, China and Iran appreciate and honour him. Thanks to state coffers filled with Russian money and European ignorance towards Belarus, Lukashenko was able to govern repressively for 26 years. But now the game is afoot. The protests will go on. The question is how to stop Lukashenko from using massive violence in the end. This is where we come in – we Europeans, who years ago lifted the travel restrictions against the Minsk elite totally unattended and simply released their frozen assets. That was a mistake: the arrests of peaceful demonstrators just went on and on.
In 2004, when the elections in Ukraine were rigged, the EU and the OSCE showed a great deal of commitment: negotiations, plans to renounce violence, and recounts. I would like to see a similarly prominent European array in Minsk now. I expected the German Foreign Minister in Moscow to give similarly clear signals today as he did then. He could have launched the European mediation initiative for Berlarus there. Belarusian and European civil society can trust the EU only if the EU defends civil rights. It is frightening how times have changed.
Shortly before the elections, a European was in Minsk: Viktor Orban. He promoted Lukashenko and wanted to abolish the last remaining sanctions imposed by Brussels – a superb example of autocratic cooperation. So much for the EU. Are we going to let this happen? Or will we, especially during the German EU Presidency, NOT bow to the conservatives and the anti-democrats?
