Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the democratic crisis in Belarus, of which the Minister of State will be aware. I do so in the full knowledge that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, has a very deep personal connection with Belarus and met Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Brussels on 21 September. She is the opposition leader in Belarus who has been displaced by the recent presidential election and has had to flee the country, in essence. The Minister described her as an extraordinary and brave woman.

The Minister of State will be aware that, since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has been President of Belarus. He was the first president elected after the constitution was established. Belarus has been independent since 1990 so it is a relatively young country. During his term as President, Mr. Lukashenko's attitude to the people of Belarus has been characterised by what he has described as his authoritarian ruling style. That is evidenced in the manner he has behaved. He has treated the democratic institutions of Belarus with contempt. In the original constitution, there were term limits on the presidency in terms of the number of years and terms a president could serve. In 1996, Mr. Lukashenko, in a referendum, extended the number of years of a presidency from five to seven. As a result of that referendum, he has been barred from membership of the Council of Europe. In 2004, he held a referendum to remove the constitutional term limits, which was described by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, as unfree. There is no doubt about his attitude. In 2006, when he ran in the presidential election, his opponent, Alyaksandr Kazulin, was arrested and beaten by police in Belarus and this is exactly the kind of thing we saw recently in the run-up to the 2020 election. Mr. Lukashenko seems to get 80% of the vote every time. Nobody believes that, but that is what is recorded officially. The OSCE has described these presidential elections as unfair, whereas Russia has described them as open and fair.An axis is emerging here and that is highly undesirable from the point of view of international relations. Again, in 2010 opposition presidential candidates were imprisoned and beaten. Independent observers described that election as fraudulent and it has been criticised by the European Union, as was the most recent election in 2020. Perhaps it is the highest profile because of the massive public outcry at the result of opposition leader, Ms Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Her vote clearly was not reflected in the huge public outcry that came as a result of that election.

The European Commission High Representative said very clearly the election was neither free nor fair and described last week's secret inauguration by Mr. Lukashenko as lacking any democratic legitimacy. There is clearly a consensus internationally that this man is a dictator and this is an authoritarian dictatorship. It is the last one in Europe. It is right on our borders in Europe. I want to know what Ireland is doing about that. The European Union has failed to put sanctions in place and I am aware of the position of Cyprus in that regard. However, what is Ireland doing to put pressure on them? Mr. Emmanuel Macron in France said that Mr. Lukashenko must go. The UK and Canada have put in place sanctions against Belarus. The UK is not a country we should be following here. We should be ahead of the curve on this issue. I would like to see the Taoiseach make Ireland's position clear that we are opposed to this type of regime, we are opposed to the lack of democracy and that Mr. Lukashenko must step down as President of Belarus.