French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday promised to help mediate in the Belarusian political crisis during a meeting with opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
“We will do our best as Europeans to help mediate,” Macron told reporters after the talks during his visit to Lithuania.
Tikhanovskaya said: “He promised us to do everything just to help with mediation for this political crisis in our country.”
The meeting was Tikhanovskaya’s most high-profile meeting since a presidential election on Aug. 9 in which she has claimed victory against strongman president Alexander Lukashenko.
She has previously met EU foreign ministers and leaders of Poland and Lithuania, two EU states that border Belarus and have taken a lead in opposition Lukashenko’s 26-year rule.
Mass protests that have continued since the election have been met with a violent crackdown.
Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the vote, said Macron promised to “do everything he can to release all the political prisoners.”
