Belarusians protest in Warsaw against re-election of Lukashenko

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Hundreds of Belarusians on Sunday held a protest in Warsaw against the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and again claimed victory in yesterday’s vote.

The demonstration was led by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled Belarusian opposition leader and a candidate in the 2020 election, who called the vote a “farce”.

During the protest – which took place under the slogan “Not my choice” – participants marched from Trzech Krzyży Square in the city centre to Zamkowy Square in Warsaw’s old town, holding a 330-metre-long Belarusian flag in the white-red-white version used by the country’s opposition groups.

They also carried smaller white-red-white flags and portraits of political prisoners, and chanted “Long live Belarus!” as well as “We believe, we can, we will win!”. They were joined by Pavel Latushko and Franak Viačorka, both Belarusian opposition politicians in exile, as well as Tsikhanouskaya, who led the crowd.

Some protestors wore masks in order to stay anonymous. The Belarusian regime continues to monitor its citizens abroad and initiates prosecutions against those who participate in protests as well as their family members back in Belarus, according to Belsat, a Poland-based Belarusian-language broadcaster.

During a press conference organised before the protest at the Free Belarus Museum in Warsaw, Tsikhanouskaya called the election a “farce”. “This is not an election, but rather a ‘special election operation’ aimed at keeping Lukashenko in power,” she added, quoted by news website Interia.

Meanwhile, Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski wrote mockingly on X: “Only 87.6% of Belarusians love their daddy?! Will the rest of them fit in jail?”.

According to the latest results published by the Belarusian electoral commission, Lukashenko won with around 86.8% of the vote. The other selected candidates have openly expressed support for him, while his political opponents remain either in prison or, like Tsikhanouskaya, in exile.

Belarusians that live abroad are not able to cast their ballot unless they return to Belarus, which in some cases would entail the risk of repression, arrest or imprisonment.

Due to such “grave violations of human rights and democratic principles”, the election was deemed a “sham” by the European Parliament, which reaffirmed its support for the Belarusian people, called for the EU to refuse to recognise Lukashenko’s victory, and expressed a willingness to broaden the scope of sanctions imposed on Minsk.

Asked about the Warsaw protest by a journalist from the French Press Agency (AFP), Lukashenko ridiculed it, claiming that the organisers were worried about how many participants would actually show up.

“Don’t make people laugh. I know how this was being prepared. There is no rally [in Warsaw], due to a lack of funding. Trump didn’t give any money,” he claimed, as reported by Interia.

Belarusians make up the second-largest group of foreign nationals in Poland with almost 130,000 residing in the country, according to the state Social Security Institution (ZUS). That is 11.5% of all foreigners, behind only Ukrainians (67.3%).

However, Poland’s relations with Minsk remain tense, as Lukashenko’s regime continues to fuel an engineered migration crisis at the border with Poland.

Belarus has also recently for the first time added a Polish NGO to its list of “extremist” organisations. The foundation’s leadership could in theory face long-term sentences in Belarusian penal colonies.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborca.pl

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.