The European Union does not recognize Alexander Lukashenko as President of Belarus.

Now that the incumbent president has been sworn in for a new term after “faked” presidential elections on Wednesday, Brussels will review its “relations with Belarus,” said foreign chief Josep Borrell.

After the elections on 9 August, the EU already stated that it did not recognize the result, a great victory for Lukashenko, while everything pointed to promising opportunities for the opposition.

The ballot box was “neither free nor fair”, Borrell repeats. “The so-called inauguration and the new mandate that Lukashenko claims, therefore, lack any democratic legitimacy.”

The regime in Minsk must immediately stop violence against the opposition, release all political prisoners and call new elections, underlines the EU foreign chief.

The Netherlands also announced that it would not recognize Lukashenko as president and that it would notify the Belarusian ambassador of this.