Alexander Lukashenko has been sworn in for a seventh consecutive term as president of Belarus at a ceremony in the capital Minsk. During the ceremony, Lukashenko poked fun at those who call him 'Europe's last dictator' by claiming Belarus has more democracy "than those who cast themselves as its models." "Half of the world is dreaming about our 'dictatorship,' the dictatorship of real business and interests of our people," Lukashenko said in his inauguration speech at the Independence Palace. Lukashenko marked three decades in power last year and his political opponents have denounced the tightly orchestrated presidential election on 26 January as a farce. The Belarus Central Election Commission announced Lukashenko won almost 87% of the vote after a campaign in which four token challengers on the ballot all praised his rule. Opposition members have been imprisoned or exiled abroad by Lukashenko's crackdown on dissent and free speech. Months of massive protests that were unprecedented in the history of the country of nine million people followed the 2020 election and prompted the harsh crackdown. Over 65,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten by police and independent media outlets and non-governmental organisations were closed and outlawed, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West. Thousands of Lukashenko supporters attended Tuesday's inauguration ceremony, where he denounced his critics as foreign stooges who were at odds with the people. "You don't and won't have public support, you have no future," he declared. "We have more democracy than those who cast themselves as its models." Belarusian activists say the country holds more than 1,200 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, founder of the Viasna Human Rights Centre. "The election was held amid a deep human rights crisis, in the atmosphere of total fear caused by repressions against civil society, independent media, opposition and dissent," according to a statement released by Viasna and 10 other Belarusian human rights groups. They say Lukashenko's hold on power is illegitimate. Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, relying on subsidies and political support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself in office for a quarter-century, an alliance that helped the Belarusian leader survive the 2020 protests. Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use the country's territory to invade Ukraine in February 2022 and later hosted some of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons. Opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus under government pressure after running against Lukashenko in 2020, vowed to keep fighting for the country's freedom. "Our goal is to break away from the Russian occupation and Lukashenko's tyranny, and to return Belarus into the European family of nations," Tsikhanouskaya said in a speech at the Lithuanian parliament. Some observers say Lukashenko could now try to mend ties with the West. "Lukashenko already has been sending signals to the West about his readiness to start a dialogue and his desire to normalize ties in order to ease the total dependence on the Kremlin and soften Western sanctions during his seventh term," said Valery Karbalevich, an independent political analyst. — Euronews
