Donald Tusk: Lukashenka Will Lose This Battle

Belarusians are close to victory, and this is encouraging.

Donald Tusk, chairman of the European People's Party, who previously headed the European Council for five years, said in an interview with Radio Liberty that Europe could more actively support Belarus. For this, in his opinion, it is necessary to combine efforts and rely on public opinion. According to Tusk, in recent months, Europe has been focusing on the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, which significantly complicates the response to the Belarusian events.

- You know Belarus and its ruler well since you served as Prime Minister of Poland and President of the European Council. In your opinion, the European Union underestimated the problem of Lukashenka?

- First of all, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the European Union does not have hard power, we have so-called soft power at our disposal, and this also applies to Lukashenka and all of Belarus. This means that our role was and, of course, is to influence and support some social movements, people, non-governmental organizations, to demonstrate how democratic principles work, and so on. For this reason, I think that the EU as a whole is to a greater or lesser extent, and I can say the same about myself when I headed the Polish government in 2012-13, lacked unconventional solutions, and support was certainly not enough... There is always more to be done, no doubt, in all circumstances.

First of all, of course, I mean different interests and different attitudes towards the same topic among the EU countries, different approaches to Russia... But our common efforts, if such a phrase can be applied, our common foreign policy was relatively effective. I am talking about Ukraine during the Euromaidan, and also later, during the conflict that arose there, the war in Donbass. And of course, this concerns Lukashenka.

Today's main question is not what we have done, but what we can do now, and also, in my opinion, and this is important, what we will be doing in the next few months and years. Because, and I want to remind you of this, we have created the Eastern Partnership program. In my opinion, quite promising. I think this is the best example of soft power politics. At the same time, we have, of course, objectively very difficult circumstances. And in this difficult situation, the European Union and individual EU member states made certain efforts during the last months of the Belarusian protests at their national level. Today we are talking about a pandemic, and before that, there was a Ukrainian crisis, then the revolution began in Belarus, there was also a financial crisis, migration, Brexit, Trumpism in the United States came at a critical moment in our transatlantic relations. All these things impose restrictions on our efforts to help Belarus, help people living in Belarus and Ukraine. For this reason, I believe that the EU's actions are relatively successful. And if you ask, could we have done more, no doubt, you can always do more than has been done.

- Speaking about more, what can the EU do to help Belarus?

- As I said, the most important issue remains mobilization within the EU at our level and at national levels - what matters is what public opinion will be in the coming months. Because I fear, and this is what we all feel in recent days, the coronavirus pandemic has left a huge imprint on everything. We must also protect the European Union from what is called "Belarusian fatigue." It existed when I was President of the European Council. And, not only for me, the fight against this fatigue was one of the big challenges. How to preserve Europe's cohesion and, at the same time, to mobilize - to resist Putin and his actions in Ukraine? I have no doubt that we will observe the same in the case of Belarus, but the problem today, of course, is much more complicated because of the pandemic. Now is the moment to tell you some details.

Not everyone in the EU knows how wide and how complex the area of our assistance is. I mean financial aid, and here I can mention, for example, the Foundation for Democracy, a very effective NGO that is able to help the Belarusian revolution in some logistical and financial aspects. Political efforts. Here, the best possible example of how to deal with such a problem as the crisis in Belarus is the Lithuanian government. The Sakharov Prize for the Belarusian opposition became symbolic support. The most important thing is to establish exceptional cooperation, which combines positive emotions, as well as efforts both within Belarus and abroad, that is, in the European Union.

You know, I am still impressed by the last meeting with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and other leaders of the Belarusian opposition. In a sense, they are great romantics, very courageous, even heroic. At the same time, they are very realistic, very responsible. And they know what is possible and what is not possible when it comes to EU assistance. They are aware of the fact that we have certain limitations, including certain differences in the assessment of the same problem by the EU member states. What is really important is that no one in Belarus should give up on this, because they are really close to winning. I think I can say this based on personal experience because I still remember myself as a young rebel in communist Poland. I still remember people on the streets, riot policemen beating people... But at the same time, I remember how effective peaceful resistance can be. This is exactly what is happening in Belarus. Such was the assessment of my Belarusian interlocutors that we must be as careful as we must be determined. At the same time, one thing is absolutely clear to me that our help and political support for the Belarusian revolution is not only a moral obligation. At the same time, this is our extremely rational calculation.

This is why I am so optimistic. It is also because almost all the leaders I have met in the past few months note that Lukashenka will lose this battle. And even if not this battle, then this war, started by him against his own people and the Belarusian civil society. This means that our involvement, our participation is not only, as I said, a moral obligation, but also a very rational political calculation. Therefore, I am very optimistic about the continuation of coordinated support to Belarus.