Ulad Vialichka: With her casual statements, EU official is interfering into Belarusan situation

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No matter whether it was spontaneous or deliberate, the statement made by Maira Moira in support of Aliaksandr Lukashenka voiced on the TV will be used by the Belarusan propaganda to the full.

When the Head of EU Delegation to Belarus Ambassador Maira Mora called for the Belarusans to “support your president” it agitated the whole democratic community in the country. The phrase that was voiced during the discussion of the war in Ukraine was perceived as an intervention of the European Ambassador into Belarus’ internal affairs. At the same time, the official propaganda presents it as a call of the EU to vote for Lukashenka at the president election in 2015.

Why did the diplomat of such high level made such a “careless” remark? Or is it a Freudian slip? What might these thoughtless words bring Belarus?

Ulad Vialichka, the head of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”, shared his understanding of the situation with “EuroBelarus” Information Service.

“Belarusans, you peaceful people, support your President so that there is no more war in your neighboring country”, - claimed a representative of the EU in Belarus Maira Mora on ONT (“Nationwide TV”). How can you assess this public statement made by the EU representative?

- Trying to access the situation, I watched the programme once more, so that to understand the context and the sense of the message. The programme dealt with military actions in Ukraine, and, naturally, as any human, Maira Mora voiced the aspiration for furthering the end of the war, but the choice of words was extremely unsuccessful, and now she has to pay for it. From my point of view, it is human factor and lack of experience in public speaking that is to blame. Nevertheless, the diplomat of such high level cannot but understands that such words offend civil and political activists of our country, political prisoners and their families.

- On the threshold of the president election campaign the official propaganda cut the phrase of Maira Mora to “Belarusans, support your President”. Most of the Belarusans who aren’t bound to go into the root of the political nuances, will understand this phrase as a direct call of the EU to vote for Lukashenka…

- Well, the words of the European Ambassador can be interpreted in this way. Statements of the EU official person, who calls Lukashenka “President” and who also calls for supporting him, can be interpreted in favor of the Belarusan authorities, whatever the contexts are. Thus, the official person of the EU intervenes into Belarus’ inner political situation and directly or not, but expresses the liking for the current authorities, despite the non-recognition of the latest president elections and its results, as well as unclear barriers in Belarus-EU relations.

- Perhaps, we shouldn’t look for deep implications in this phrase? The EU thanks Lukashenka for the efforts in reaching peace in Donbas; Belarusan officials are warmly welcomed in the West. De jure, formal sanctions against official Minsk are preserved, but de facto the EU sees Lukashenka not as the last dictator in Europe, but as Europe’s favourite.

- I wouldn’t be reviewing the state of EU-Belarus relations basing on this TV-precedent. Naturally, with all the violence and tough crisis in Ukraine (humanitarian catastrophe, human tragedy) quiet Belarus looks more attractive as a partner for communication. However, I don’t think that Belarusan officials are much welcomed in Europe. The cooperation between them is rather of more technical, expert, and non-political character.

The EU has voiced its gratefulness for the organization of negotiations in Minsk; however, in reality it is a mere diplomatic politeness. At the same time, problems, which used to inhibit Belarus-Europe relations, still remain. The EU cannot but look for ways to warm up these relations because of their pragmatic interests, but there everything has its own limit. As we are all humans, our rhetoric often reveals our values. I am surprised at the fact that the EU Ambassador took part in the official talk show of the National Belarusian TV-channel. Frankly speaking, I can’t recall when diplomats of such level participated in such kind of TV-programmes. Such things weren’t practiced for a long time, and when it happened – I have no idea what we should think about it. Ukraine is a very important issue for discussing; but why did we hear exactly these words from the EU representative on the Belarusan TV? But we had better looked for the intrigue in the Belarusan ideological machine that used the EU diplomat in its interests.