Belarus Election A Test Of EU Resolve

The Belarusian presidential election held on August 9 is likely to prove a test of the EU's democratic resolve following a result that was criticised by Belarus' opposition as rigged.

• Despite huge crowds gathering for opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's events throughout the election campaign and unofficial opinion polls showing overwhelming support for Tikhanosvskaya, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko - Belarus' president since 1994 - was declared the winner with 80.23% of the vote according to the electoral commission.
• The announcement of a Lukashenko landslide led to accusations of ballot rigging and sparked large protests on the streets of the capital Minsk.
• The European Commission issued a statement condemning the violence that followed the announcement of Lukashenko's victory and said the electoral commission must announce the actual total of ballots, but did not go so far as to call the election fraudulent or issue support for the opposition (https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/83935/belarus-joint-statement-high-representativevice-president-josep-borrell-and-neighbourhood-and_en).
• Other EU countries have gone further, with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stating that "We must support the Belarusian people in their quest for freedom," and calling for an extraordinary EU summit on Belarus.
• Whether the EU and indeed other EU member states rally to the Belarusian opposition's cause is likely to prove one of the first major foreign policy tests of the von der Leyen Commission within the European continent.