Hungary to prevent EU sanctions against Belarus?

It seems that the situation in Belarus does not seem to calm; a lot of people still demonstrate against Alexander Lukashenko, the re-elected president of the country saying that the election was a fraud. Police reacted harshly, and they already took more than 3,000 people into custody while video records spread on the Internet, proving the brutality of their actions. PM Viktor Orbán visited the country in June saying that the EU should abolish all sanctions against Belarus. Now, they said that the Hungarian government would veto further sanctions against Belarus.

According to 24.hu, sad news came in the last 72 hours from Belarus where anti-government protestors clashed with police units. One man died, several others were injured, videos flooded the Internet about the brutality of the Belarussian military and police units which, based on some reports, attacked even from ambulance cars (which is considered to be a war crime in times of war).

Journalists and some other people even disappeared, the leader of the opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, fled to Lithuania and today she already talked about the importance of restoring peace in a video. Experts say that Lukashenko’s power has been waning for long since there is no stability and prosperity anymore in Belarus. Probably that is why there were so many frauds during the elections. Of course, Russia’s opinion is deciding on the issue, and 24.hu says that

for Putin, a weaker but controllable Lukashenko would be perfect

and, as a result, Belarus could remain a buffer state. However, they have to “invest” a lot of money in the country which, of course, can reach a limit.

It seems that the European Union is only watching what happens. The Hungarian member of the European Commission responsible for enlargement issued a statement in which he expressed his worries about the ongoing events. Still, some member states would like to introduce sanctions against Belarus like the EU did in the case of Russia before (the EU lifted almost all sanctions against Belarus in 2016). Furthermore, the liberal and People’s Party group of the European Parliament cleared that they would back such a move. 

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government expressed that they would veto an initiative containing the re-establishment of the sanctions against Belarus. That is crucial because

decisions like that need unanimous support from the EU member states. 

In June, PM Viktor Orbán paid a visit to Belarus during which he said that the EU should lift all sanctions against the country. Lukashenko highlighted then the importance of economic and trade cooperation between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union and added that the Hungarians and a Belarusians are much closer to each other than anybody could ever think. 

Lukashenko said then that Hungary is Belarus’s closest partner in the European Union since Budapest understands them most. Thanks to the support of the Hungarian government, the Belarussian-EU ties became more balanced and pragmatic in the last few years – he cleared.

Source: 24.hu