Hearing in the EU Parliament - Tichanovskaya: "My country is in turmoil and crisis"
At her hearing in the European Parliament, Svetlana Tichanovskaya stressed that she and her fellow campaigners were no longer the opposition, but the majority in Belarus. The demand of the parliament for fair new elections goes too far for some EU members.
The opposition politician spoke calmly about the situation in her country for almost eight minutes.
“My country is in turmoil and crisis, peaceful protesters have been illegally arrested and beaten. The authorities use the tactic of intimidation, fear and physical threat. "
All of this happens in Europe, says Swetlana Tychanowska. We are no longer the opposition, she continued, we are the majority. A peaceful revolution is taking place, not a geopolitical one. It was neither pro nor anti-Russian, neither pro nor against the European Union.
The vast majority of the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament paid her great respect. It was politicians from the United Left parliamentary group who denied legitimation and defended both ruler Lukashenko and Russia's intervention as legitimate.
Call for new elections: threat to Lukashenko and Putin
The five largest groups in parliament agreed on a resolution last week in which, among other things, they condemn the violence against demonstrators, do not recognize the election results and call for further sanctions. Last Wednesday, the European Council took a similar position. But the majority in parliament - as so often - goes beyond that. For example, it explicitly calls for new elections under fair conditions. A demand that the heads of state and government did not find again.
“How can this sentence be missing?” Asked the Social Democratic MP Kati Piri and demanded an answer from the EU Foreign Service. Some states considered the demand for new elections to be too extensive. Not only Lukashenko but also the Russian president could feel threatened by such a scenario.Warning of Russia's interference
And while the EU summit opposed “any interference from outside”, MEPs had explicitly called on Russia to refrain from interfering openly or covertly and called on the EU to take countermeasures. We shouldn't be naive, said Green MP Viola von Cramon.
"Russia is already very active in Belarus and controls the security forces, the Kremlin has sent bodyguards for Lukashenko, media representatives on state television have been sent from Moscow, and we see the Kremlin's influence on the military level."
In September the whole parliament is supposed to vote on a report on Belarus Russia.
