Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya started a working visit to Italy. Ms.Tsikhanouskaya spoke at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament.
More than 30 parliamentarians attended the Committee hearing. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke about lawlessness, the situation with political prisoners and inhumane conditions of imprisonment, charging political and civil activists, journalists, and bloggers with extremism and terrorism.
At the hearing, practical and political assistance to Belarusians from Italy was discussed. They also spoke about assistance in facilitating negotiations with the regime – organizing them and whether anything indicates that the regime is ready to negotiate. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya noted that Lukashenka’s decision to impose a decree that would make the Security Council of Belarus his successor resulted from internal and external pressure. So it’s important to keep pressuring the regime.
The Chairman of the Committee, Piero Fassino, stated that many Belarusians helped Italy in its resistance against fascism during the Second World War. Italy feels that more needs to be done in terms of solidarity.
Politicians noted the online voting initiative in support of negotiations and stressed that the number of nearly 800,000 Belarusian votes was very impressive and demonstrated people's will to negotiate the new election.
The parliamentarians also noted that accusing Ms. Tsikhanouskaya and other Belarusian politicians of terrorism was unacceptable and reflected Lukashenka’s position on political activity in Belarus. Some parliamentarians directly called Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya the President of Belarus.
