Macron urges Belarus leader to step down

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said that Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko must step down, after the European Union refused to recognise him as the legitimate president of the ex-Soviet country.

“It’s clear he has to go,” Macron told French weekly the Journal du Dimanche ahead of a trip to EU states Lithuania and Latvia, which border Belarus.

“It is a crisis of power, an authoritarian power that cannot accept the logic of democracy and which is hanging on by force,” Macron said.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Belarus since Aug 9 elections which opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she won, despite Lukashenko’s insistence he took a landslide victory.

The embattled leader has launched a brutal crackdown against the protesters – drawing condemnation from the West, but support from Moscow.

This week he triggered new demonstrations and fresh Western criticism when he held a secret inauguration for himself.

Macron said yesterday he had been “impressed by the courage of the protesters”.

“They know the risks they are taking by demonstrating every weekend, and yet, they are pushing forward with the movement to make democracy come alive in this country that has been deprived of it for so long,” he said.

“Women in particular, who march every Saturday, command our respect,” he added.

More than 90 people – most of them women – were arrested on Saturday at opposition rallies, according to one NGO. Fresh protests were sparked by the surprise announcement on Wednesday that Lukashenko had been sworn in for a sixth term in office.

The EU said the strongman’s inauguration lacked “democratic legitimacy” and refused to recognise him as president.

EU ministers decided in principle last month to impose sanctions against the regime.

Meanwhile, Baltic EU states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have expanded their own sanctions against Belarus.