Robert Tyszkiewicz: Cooperation with Lukashenka is shame

The Civic Platform condemns the opening a lobby group for Lukashenka in the Polish Sejm.

The party recommends members of the governmental coalition who joined the new group on cooperation with Belarus to quit it. “It's a shame and a serious political mistake,” says Robert Tyszkiewicz, an MP from the Civic Platform. He has been heading the group on relations with Belarus since 2005.

The new parliamentary group, which appeared in the Polish Sejm some days ago, will develop the economic and cultural cooperation, the group founders say. The initiative belongs to Eugeniusz Czykwin, a representative of the Belarusian ethnic minority in Poland, Polskie Radio reports.

Robert Tyszkiewicz says that “until recently, the Polish Parliament, regardless of the parties, has had a common stance condemning the regime of Lukashenka”. He has no doubts that the new group was opened to oppose the existing one and create the pro-Lukashenka lobby in the Polish Sejm. According to Tyszkiewicz, it can be clearly seen in the title of the group that focuses not on the Polish-Belarusian friendship or the Polish-Belarusian cooperation, but on the cooperation with the Republic of Belarus.

“Who rules the Belarusian state today? We all know that,” Robert Tyszkiewicz says. “The aim of this initiative is cooperation with the regime in Minsk, building a positive image of the regime in the Polish Sejm and Polish political life. If the work of this group had other aims, MP Czykwin and other initiators could join the other group on Belarus that has been working in the Sejm for a long time. These people didn't want to join us. It's obvious for me why the new group was created. Taking into account that the problems of human rights abuses, violations of democratic principles and support of the Belarusian democratic opposition are main issues for the group that has been working since 2005, MP Czykwin and his colleagues do not want to have anything in common with the activity to support democracy and persecuted people.”