Pofalla: Death penalty is the main obstacle to development of Belarus-EU re
The German Federal Minister explained why he had met the opposition, commented on the drawbacks of the presidential election campaign and expressed his opinion
A member of the German Bundestag, the Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery and a Federal Minister for Special Affairs Ronald Pofalla visited Belarus on November 3 and 4. He made a speech at the opening ceremony of Minsk Forum XIII and met the head of the President’s Administration Uladzimir Makei, the opposition and civil community representatives.
"The existence of the death penalty is the biggest obstacle to the rapprochement between Belarus and the European Union. It is absolutely unacceptable. It is a value of the Council of Europe and of Europe on the whole. It is not only present in the Belarusian Penal Code but it is also practiced”, - informed the German Minister.
Uladzimir Makei did not comment on the issue and did not react to Pofalla’s statement concerning the capital punishment at the opening ceremony of Minsk Forum on November 3.
The German Minister noted that he had met the Belarusian opposition “to inspire its members to continue their work and to support them”. The idea of a single candidate was touched upon during the conversation. In Ronald Pofalla’s opinion, a great number of candidates is a display of pluralism. The fact whether Lukashenka’s opponents are able to create a single platform and to agree on general minimal terms is important, added Ronald Pofalla.
The German Minister stressed that Belarus was still far from the European standards for free and fair elections.
Ronald Pofalla: "Belarus is still far from the free and fair elections conducted according to the European standards. On the other hand, there are certain positive changes: in the registration of candidates and in the way signatures were collected”.
The German official noted that the fact that the names of presidential candidates were still not clear after a few weeks was a major drawback of the election campaign.
Ronald Pofalla did not answer the question about the effect an unfair presidential election could produce on EU-Belarus relations. “I will criticize it a lot in this case and Europe will have to consider its reaction”, - informed the Federal Minister.
Ronald Pofalla also noted that the Belarusian government had to do everything to dismiss all doubts about the circumstances of “the strange death” of journalist Aleh Byabenin.
