Belarus opposition leader meets with Merkel and vows to continue struggle

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday as European leaders sought to keep up the pressure on the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

In a clear message to Minsk, Mrs Tsikhanouskaya was given a working visit usually reserved for visiting heads of government.

“We need mediation in Belarus between the opposition and the regime,” Mrs Tsikhanouskaya said ahead of the meeting.

“Protests in Belarus are not about a fight against Russia or in favour of Europe: they're a result of an internal Belarusian crisis.”

Mrs Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to flee Belarus following August’s presidential election, is touring Europe as she seeks to maintain international pressure on Mr Lukashenko. Her meeting with Mrs Merkel follows talks with Emmanuel Macron in France last week.

Britain and the European Union have refused to accept the official results of August’s election, which Mr Lukashenko claims to have won by a landslide.

Mr Tsikhanouskaya said her main aim remains is to persuade him to hold fresh presidential elections.

“It’s important that they should be held as soon as possible since people have been living under pressure for 26 years and now they don’t want to do that any longer," she said.

She is also understood to have asked Mrs Merkel asked for international pressure on the Lukashenko regime in secure the release of political prisoners in Belarus.

Among them are her husband, the blogger Sergei Tsikhanousky, who has been held in pre-trial detention for four months, and her fellow opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, who was jailed last month.

Ahead of the meeting, Mrs Tsikhanouskaya visited the former site of the Berlin Wall and compared its fall 31 years ago to the situation in her own country.

“The first thing I did in Berlin was to come and see the Berlin Wall,” she said. “I was shown a picture of people from the eastern side standing on the wall. It's the same in Belarus: we are on this wall and we are going to tear it down.”

Mrs Merkel did not comment publicly following the meeting. But in a sign of a deepening rift between the EU and Belarus, Poland confirmed that it had recalled its ambassador from Minsk.

Zbigniew Rau, the Polish foreign minister, said on Twitter that several European countries have decided to withdraw their ambassador for “consultations”.

The move comes after Belarus recalled its ambassadors from Poland and Lithuania and ordered the two countries to cut their embassy staff, accusing them of fomenting unrest.