After Finland, on March 4-7, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will visit Portugal, which holds the EU Council's presidency as of January 2021. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya will have meetings with the Portuguese Prime Minister António da Costa, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, and José Manuel Barroso, former the President of the European Commission. On March 7-10, the leader of democratic Belarus will visit Switzerland to meet the UN and the Swiss parliament representatives.
During visits to European capitals, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will discuss the ongoing political crisis in Belarus. Free and fair elections must take place in September at the latest. The leader of democratic Belarus will ask to increase pressure on Lukashenka's regime to end the violence and release all political prisoners. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya will also discuss with European politicians programs of support to Belarus civil society, human rights defenders, independent media, and help to victims of the regime.
