Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó discussed the situation in Minsk with the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borell and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas by telephone on Sunday.

In a Facebook post on Sunday evening, the Hungarian Foreign Minister highlighted: European political opinion continues to be concerned with the situation in Minsk. “We will hopefully be able to find reassuring solutions that are based on dialogue and mirror the unified position of the European Union as soon as possible”, he added. “The issue will be on the agenda at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council on 27-28 August in Berlin”, Mr Szijjártó wrote.

According to the official final results announced on Friday, last Sunday’s presidential elections in Belarus were won by incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko with 80.1 percent of the votes. The president’s main rival acquired 10.12 percent of the votes. People have been taking to the streets every day since the elections, and protests have been reported in Minsk, Grodno, Brest and other cities. The authorities have arrested thousands of people throughout the country. The protests have also claimed several lives.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)