Belarus: Greens criticize Angela Merkel's phone call with Alexander Lukashenko

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Alexander Lukashenko was not recognized by the EU as head of state of Belarus

Photo: Nikolai Petrov / imago images / ITAR-TASS

The phone call between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has been criticized from within the ranks of the Greens.

Foreign politician Omid Nouripour spoke of a "devastating signal" on Deutschlandfunk.

Because the EU did not recognize the controversial re-election of Lukashenko last year.

With her phone call, however, Merkel de facto achieved this recognition.

According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, Merkel had telephoned Lukashenko for around 50 minutes on Monday.

According to the federal government, the focus was on the situation of the refugees in the border area with Poland and Lithuania as well as possible humanitarian aid.

The EU should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Lukashenko, demanded Nouripour.

But he also called for humanitarian aid for the refugees stuck in the border area.

It is now especially important "that these people do not freeze to death at the border," said the Green politician.

These people must be helped and they must be able to apply for asylum in the EU.

Lukashenko announces another phone call with Merkel

Nouripour pointed out that the overall number of refugees was rather small and that, also due to the sanctions, it was not to be expected that more and more migrants would come.

He therefore turned against a "panic" in the EU before their possible entry.

Lukashenko announced that he wanted to speak to Merkel a second time about the fate of the refugees on the border with Poland.

This was reported by the official Belarusian news agency Belta on Tuesday.

Lukashenko said that he had submitted a proposal to Merkel to resolve the crisis.

Scholz calls Lukashenko a "bad dictator"

Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz called for "clear, tough" sanctions against Lukashenko at an event organized by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

This is a "very bad dictator" and has lost all legitimacy.

One must work to ensure that a democratic process can take place in Belarus.

One shouldn't play the game of Lukashenko and the smuggler, who lured people to Belarus with false promises.

Lukashenko is accused of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU's external border in an organized manner.

On Poland's border with Belarus, thousands of migrants on the Belarusian side have been waiting for several days at temperatures around freezing point in makeshift camps in the forest.

as / AFP / Reuters