EU: Lukashenko ‘not legitimate president’

The EU refuses to recognize Alexander Lukashenko as Belarus president after his inauguration that lacked “democratic legitimacy” and Brussels is reviewing its relations with Minsk, the EU’s diplomatic chief said. Lukashenko’s secret inauguration triggered fresh condemnation in the West and new mass demonstrations in Belarus that have erupted frequently since the disputed August 9 elections.

The elections were neither free nor fair and “the European Union does not recognize their falsified results,” EU high representative Josep Borrell said in a statement.