Expatica news

Lithuanians call on Macron to ‘hear’ Belarusians’ freedom cry

Leading Lithuanian writers, artists and scientists on Sunday appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to support protesters in neighbouring Belarus, who have demanded the resignation of their country’s strongman leader since a disputed August presidential election.

Macron begins a two-day visit to EU and euro single currency members Lithuania and Latvia on Monday, the first by a French head of state to the Baltic region bordering Belarus in two decades.

Vilnius and Riga are hoping for French support in the face of the Belarus crisis and rising tensions with Russia.

“Men and women of Belarus are subjected to inhuman torture. And this is happening in 21st century Europe!,” said a poster designed as an open letter to Macron and signed by more than forty leading Lithuanian cultural figures.

“We trust that you, who represents France where human rights were born, will also hear the painful cry of the Belarusian people for their freedom,” says the appeal, which also harks back to Lithuania’s successful 1990 struggle for freedom from the Soviet Union.

Designed by renowned Lithuanian artist Stasys Eidrigevicius, the poster features the historical white-red-white Belarusian flag used by protesters in Minsk.

Macron on Sunday called on Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down, after the EU refused to recognise him as the legitimate president of the ex-Soviet country.

The French president will meet the leaders of Lithuania and Latvia during his trip, and his office has not ruled out a meeting with Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the disputed presidential ballot.

Tikhanovskaya insists she won despite Lukashenko’s insistence he took a landslide victory.

The embattled Lukashenko has launched a brutal crackdown against the protesters demanding his resignation — drawing condemnation from the West, but support from Russia.