Europe must put pressure on Belarus

After the street protests against the election victory of President Alexander Lukashenko the Belarusian security forces arrested seven opposition candidates on Sunday night. The EU must continue its efforts to see democracy established in the country, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Europe must continue to make financial aid or visa exemption ... conditional on the political reforms that we saw at least in mini format with the television appearances of Lukashenko's opponents. Berlin and Brussels can't go on naively courting Minsk. And yet Belarus is no North Korea but a country on Europe's border. Its people want stability and freedom; they want fear and intimidation to be a thing of the past. Democracy is not something we can expect to see any time soon in Belarus, as the election proved. Many people in Minsk, Grodno and Brest would be completely devastated if the West were to turn its back on them in disappointment now. So perseverance is the only option: even Lukashenko will one day have to choose between reforms and the threat of stagnation."

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Elections, » Unrest / Riots, » Europe, » Belarus
All available articles from » Frank Nienhuysen

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, December 21, 2010