“We have to be extremely brutal with the Belarusian regime which behaves in a totally inhuman manner”, declared Monday, November 8 on franceinfo the MEP LREM Bernard Guetta, member of the foreign affairs committee. Thousands of migrants are massed at the Polish border as Belarus made them “to dangle the possibility of entering the European Union”, according to the MEP. “These people are literally dying of cold, dehydrated and without food. They are pawns in the hands of the Belarusian regime.” Bernard Guetta calls for “block exports from Belarus passing through Lithuania and Poland.”
>> On the borders of Europe, migrants trapped in a “hybrid war” between Belarus and Poland
franceinfo: Can Europe help Poland?
Bernard Guetta: No. It is very complicated because the Belarusian regime of President Lukashenko, which is dictatorial and extraordinarily repressive, is mobilizing the refugees by making them dangle the possibility of passing through Poland to enter the European Union. So these unfortunate people come and face the total closure of the border. There are 17,000 men mobilized by Poland, barbed wire and the start of the erection of a wall to block them. They are pawns in the hands of the Belarusian regime. They find themselves in a completely blocked border area where it is –5 to –10 degrees. These people are literally freezing to death, dehydrated and without food.
“They have become ping pong balls between a monstrous dictatorship and a Poland which does not want to listen to compassion and which considers itself so threatened that it leaves these people to waste away in a border area.”
Bernard Guettato franceinfo
Do you agree with the President of the European Commission, who tonight calls on the Member States to approve new sanctions, in particular against the airlines of third countries which transport these migrants to Belarus?
Of course, the President of the Commission is right a thousand times over. We should also look for additional ways to tell the Belarusian dictator to stop this totally filthy and disgusting little game with refugees fleeing misery, death, war and who believe what they are promised. It is absolutely intolerable because Mr. Lukashenko, it tears my tongue out to say it, is winning his disgusting little game, in the sense that he is making Poland and the European Union one heartless monster that lets these people die on the border.
Should we partially open this border?
What the Polonnais say, and they are not completely wrong, is that if we open up a little, it will accentuate the flow. So we can perhaps reach out to these unfortunate people and at the same time take such sanctions against the Lukashenko regime that it stops this scandalous little game. So obviously, we can sanction airlines that lend themselves to this, but more must be done by blocking Belarusian exports which pass through Lithuania and Poland to reach the Baltic Sea.
“We must now be extremely brutal with the Belarusian regime, which behaves in a totally inhuman, scandalous and monstrous manner.”
Bernard Guettato franceinfo
Shouldn’t the solution also go through Russia and Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin will not lift a finger. He supports the Lukashenko dictatorship for a very simple reason, which is that he is very afraid that if freedom ever triumphs in Belarus, it could give ideas or rather strengthen the aspirations of the Russians for more freedom and democracy.