After a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told press that he had “good news and bad news,” posting footage of his comments on X.
Sikorski confirmed that Hungary would no longer object to the extension of sanctions against Russia for another six months, but that Budapest would not agree to “a joint statement regarding the electoral farce in Belarus.”
During the December EU summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had stated that he would not agree to extend sanctions against Russia until there was a change of power in the U.S. However, after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Budapest began to demand guarantees from Brussels regarding the transit of gas from Russia through Ukraine, according to Do Rzeczy.
Hungary has reportedly received assurances that the European Commission would continue to negotiate with Ukraine on reopening its pipelines to transport Russian gas after shutting them off on Jan. 1.
As to the election in Belarus, Slovakia had also intended to veto an EU joint statement, but as any such declaration requires unanimity, Hungary’s objection alone was enough.
Alexander Lukashenko celebrated winning his seventh straight term with 87.6 percent of the vote. However, the Belarusian opposition and the West do not consider the election to have been democratic, with all other candidates on the ballot said to have been Lukashenko loyalists.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the election was a “disappointment” and that the voting was conducted “in conditions of violation of basic democratic procedures.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko on his “confident victory,” while the German foreign minister called it a “bitter day” for democracy.
Belarusians who have fled the country, more than 500,000 since the last election, according to Politico, were unable to vote, as the government banned voting from abroad, and mass protests against the election have been restricted to outside the country for fear of being “thrown in jail.”
Lukashenko responded to the commentary offered up by exiled opposition members by threatening their families still in Belarus, saying, “We will deal with you.”
