WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Prime Ministers from 4 Central European countries said Friday that a new election deserves to be made in Belarus to allow the country’s electorate its future.
“We all agree that Belarus deserves to hold free elections so that the Belarusian country can fulfill its destiny and in the long run on its own and sovereignly,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said after welcoming the other leaders of visegrad’s organization to an assembly. in east Poland. Lublin.
In preparation for a European Union summit later this month, Morawiecki and the Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary also called for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus and proposed a plan for economic cooperation in the small business and infrastructure sector. the country is advancing economically.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said it is “very important” that the stage in Belarus is discussed at the EU summit in Brussels on 24 and 25 September.
Belarus has noticed a month of street protests opposed to the effects of the August 9 presidential election in the country, which is a widespread idea that was manipulated. The official effects gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term with 80% of the vote, but protesters are defying counting and it is not easy for him to resign after 26 years in office.
Hungarian President Viktor Orban said that in addition to the economic plan for Belarus, a “military or defence” formula will be developed in the coming weeks through the European Council, the EU’s decision-making body. Be.
Morawiecki added that some “proven and proven mechanisms,” which he did not describe, will be proposed to help Belarus create a “bridge between East and West. “
The 4 leaders also said a new strategy will be discussed among the 27 EU members at the Brussels summit on the most productive way to combat the spread of coronavirus without further economic damage.
“We are waiting for the european Commission’s projects and decisions, and we will have to act to minimise the effects of the pandemic, but we cannot block another blockade,” said Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic.
Orban said fast-growing central Europe can be just the engine of an economic recovery.
“We all suffer from the coronavirus, but we also have all this prospective expansion and we deserve to verify it and all the time,” Orban said.
Poland, the largest of the 4 and aspiring to take the lead, has lately assumed the rotating presidency of the so-called Visegrad 4, central Europe’s political and economic cooperation organization.