On Sunday, after casting his vote in the presidential elections, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared that protests in Slovakia and Serbia are coordinated from abroad and directed by the United States. He also expressed his willingness to conduct a dialogue with the European Union in his next term of office. informs TASR according to the Belarusian state news agency Belta.
“All actions are completely coordinated and everything is controlled from the United States. Most of them are funded by the United States. So whoever pays the money orders the music,” Lukashenko said on the sidelines of the protests.
He also added that he was never against good relations with the West. However, according to him, there is no interest from these countries. “Should we bow down to them or beg for their favor? We are ready to have a dialogue with the European Union, even with those who have pursued a hostile policy towards us,” announced the Belarusian president.
According to Lukashenko, under the leadership of Donald Trump, the USA will put the European Union in such a position that it will not be able to stand on its feet for many more decades or centuries. Belta quoted him. “With Trump coming to power, it will not be Belarus that will resist the problems. Problems will appear in Europe,” he warned when answering a question from a BBC journalist.
According to him, Europe has only one option, namely to implement their own policy. The EU is a strong union and has a strong economy and currencyhe added. He is convinced that the planet will be more stable if it stands on many pillars. “The European Union, the United States, China, India, Russia – these are many pillars that could hold our planet together.”
The Kremlin ally, who has been in power for more than 30 years and established an authoritarian government in the country, according to AFP, added that his country is a democracy. “We don’t pressure anyone and we don’t silence anyone.”
He suggested developing common criteria for evaluating democracy and unifying them for all countries. According to him, it is necessary to define what democracy means. “Maybe there are some criteria of democracy? Let’s define and use these criteria to evaluate the United States, Britain, Brussels and Minsk. It is not right to use some criteria to evaluate us and others to evaluate them,” he specified.
According to him, he is willing to conduct a dialogue with the opposition. However, he considers “those people who remained in the country… and have decision-making authority” to be the opposition.
Polling stations for the presidential elections in Belarus opened on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CET). This is the first election of the head of state since the massive protests following the elections five years ago, in which the current president Lukashenko won by a landslide. The Belarusian opposition called them manipulated, and several countries, including the EU and the US, refused to recognize Lukashenko’s victory.
Unlike the 2020 elections, only symbolic challengers will face Lukashenko on Sunday, according to AP. who do not openly criticize the Belarusian leader. Most of the relevant opposition politicians are behind bars, in exile or have had their candidacy rejected by the electoral commission.
