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Polish PM calls for special EU summit on Belarus

10.08.2020 10:42
Poland’s prime minister has called for a special summit of EU leaders to be held focusing on Belarus, where police have cracked down on protests after a presidential election.
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  • Official results hand Belarusian leader Lukashenko re-election victory
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: PAP/Tytus Żmijewski

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made the call in a letter to European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

"We must show solidarity and support Belarusians in their pursuit of freedom,” said a statement posted on the website of the Polish Prime Minister's Office.


A riot police officer hits a demonstrator during a protest after polling stations closed in the presidential elections in Minsk, Belarus, on Sunday. Photo: EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH 
A riot police officer hits a demonstrator during a protest in Minsk, Belarus, after polling stations closed in the presidential elections on Sunday. Photo: EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

Meanwhile, Poland’s foreign ministry said it was deeply concerned at what it described as brutal measures against protesters in Belarus.

The foreign ministry in Warsaw said that the use of force against peaceful protesters and arbitrary arrests were unacceptable.

Earlier, the presidents of Poland and Lithuania urged the Belarusian authorities to uphold “basic democratic standards.”

After late night clashes between police and thousands of demonstrators who said the vote in Belarus’s presidential election was rigged, the country’s central election commission said on Monday that Alexander Lukashenko had won a landslide re-election victory.

Figures released by the election commission on Monday gave Lukashenko 80% of the vote. Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who emerged from obscurity a few weeks ago to become Lukashenko's main rival, won 9.9% of the vote, the data showed.

At least one person was killed after being knocked over by a police van and dozens were injured in the clashes that began after polling stations closed on Sunday, a representative of the rights group Spring 96 told the Reuters news agency.

(pk)

Source: PAP/Reuters

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