At the request of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas de Bouillane de Lacoste had to leave Minsk before Monday, without the reason for this ultimatum being specified.
Le Monde with AFP
The Ambassador of France in Belarus did not have any other choice than to make his luggage. Nicolas de Bouillane de Lacoste has left the country, Sunday, October 17, after an ultimatum posed by Minsk. “Ambassador Nicolas de Lacoste left Belarus today,” said a spokesman for the embassy. She did not explain the reason invoked by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request her departure.
But according to the media of Belarus, the ambassador was expelled because he never presented his letters of receivables to President Alexandre Loukachenko. In a message on its website, the French Embassy in Belarus indicated that the diplomat had presented on December 8, 2020, “the figured copy of its credentials” to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei.
“The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested that the Ambassador leave before October 18,” the spokesman said. “He said goodbye to the Embassy staff and sent a video message addressed to the Belarusian people, who will appear tomorrow (Monday) on the website of the embassy , “she said.
Paris refuses the victory of Lukashenko
France, like other countries of the European Union (EU), has not recognized the results of the August presidential election, which granted a sixth term to Mr. Lukashenko and aroused For several months of massive and unprecedented events in this former Soviet Republic, Allied Russia of Vladimir Putin. The EU and the United States adopted a series of sanctions against the Belarusian regime after the opponents’ repression.
But the 67-year-old officer, who accuses Western governments to have impressed manifestations in the hope of provoking a revolution, resists for the moment to sanctions, with the support and credits of Moscow.
Belarus cut off the links with other Western interlocutors recently. In March, Minsk had expelled all the staff of the Latvian Embassy, including the Ambassador, because the Latvian authorities had used the Belarusian opposition flag during an ice hockey championship match. In August, the Belarusian Government had withdrawn its agreement for the appointment of the American ambassador Julie Fisher, who had been confirmed in December as the first United States envoy in this former Soviet Republic since 2008.
Hundreds of imprisoned opponents
Since then, the plan has managed to end the events, imprisoned hundreds of opponents and closed dozens of media and NGOs. The opposition leaders have all been put in prison or forced to exile.
In September, a Bielorusian court sentenced one of the main opposition figures, Maria Kolesnikova, at eleven years in prison. She is the only leader of 2020 – who have sometimes gathered hundreds of thousands of people – even in the country.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, whose opposition and Westerners think she won the presidential election against Alexandre Loukachenko, is for her part in exile in neighboring Lithuania.
During the year following the election, she mobilized the great leaders of the planet, calling on the international community to put pressure to hold a new presidential in her country.