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On Wednesday, the police had cordoned off much of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and it was impossible to reach the Independence Palace. During a secret ceremony, the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was sworn in.
Water cannons against protesters
After the ceremony, the streets of Minsk were once again filled with people who came out to express their discontent.
The protesters blocked roads, shouted slogans and were greeted by heavily equipped police officers who used water cannons to try to disperse the crowd. In some places, police beat protesters with batons and several people were arrested and injured after violent clashes, writes Reuters.
Opposition: not a legitimate leader
The opposition has called the ceremony a “secret thief”. Svetlana Tichanovskaya, the country’s most famous opposition politician, says:
– To this day, he is neither a legal nor a legitimate leader of Belarus.
According to the regime, Lukashenko won the election with 80 percent of the vote, but the election result has been rejected by much of the world. For weeks, the population has taken to the streets and demonstrated.
