Friday 17th December 2021
Resistance to Lukashenko
Belarusin Tichanovskaya receives Charlemagne Prize
Svetlana Tichanovskaya is the face of the resistance against the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko. Together with two fellow campaigners, she will be honored with the Charlemagne Prize next year. The exiled opposition activist wants to appear in person at the award ceremony in Aachen.
The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaja and two of her fellow campaigners will receive the Charlemagne Prize 2022. Tichanowskaja as well as Maria Kolesnikowa and Veronika Zepkalo will be honored for their courageous and encouraging commitment to freedom, democracy and the upholding of human rights, announced the board of directors of the International Charlemagne Prize in Aachen .
The chairman Jürgen Linden said that all three had accepted the award “with great pleasure”. The honor is to be presented on May 26, 2022 in the coronation hall of Aachen city hall. The Charlemagne Prize has been awarded since 1950 for special services to European unification. Most recently, in October, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis was honored for his pro-European stance.
Tichanowskaja is the face of the opposition to the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. When her husband was not allowed to run for the presidential election in Belarus, she ran herself last year. Lukashenko, who was often called the “last dictator in Europe”, was once again declared the winner, but the West does not recognize this after reports of massive forgeries.
The 39-year-old Tichanovskaya is now living in exile. Her husband is in custody in Belarus. Tichanowskaja is supported by Kolesnikowa, who was sentenced to eleven years in a prison camp at the beginning of September in an internationally criticized process, and Zepkalo. The two women living in freedom wanted to accept the award themselves. Her sister wanted to come for Kolesnikova, said Linden.