Disinfo: Double standards around violent protests in France, Germany and Poland

Summary

There is currently in France a wave of protests against the bill on Global Security. If this happened in Russia or the Republic of Belarus, we can imagine the noise it would make. The Parisians, the French and the human rights defence organisations are concerned about it, but in the end we do not see any reaction from the international organisations. There is a double standard.

There is a difference in reactions to the opposition demonstrations in Russia on the one hand, and on the other hand, the demonstrations in Germany against the anti-Covid restriction measures, the rallies in Poland, against the hardening of the legislative arsenal against abortion, or the demonstrations of the yellow vests in France.

Disproof

Recurrent narrative about the alleged double standards from international organisations concerning Russia and Belarus.

The violence that occurred during demonstrations in France, Germany or Poland cannot be compared to the violence that led to the condemnation by the EU of violence against peaceful protesters in Belarus after the last presidential elections.

Despite the narrative of Lukashenko, protestors, journalists or even random people on the streets going to fetch groceries were taken and detained by unidentified people working for the police. The protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential election in Belarus on the 9th of August, which were not monitored by independent experts, and are largely considered fraudulent by both international observers and a large part of the Belarusian society.

Belarus' Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Karayev publicly apologised for the injuries of random people who happened to be on the streets during protests, however investigations were not opened against illegal actions of law enforcement officers but against the political opposition.

The EU has condemned the violent repressions in Belarus:

"State authorities deployed disproportionate and unacceptable violence causing at least one death and many injuries. Thousands of people were detained and the crackdown on freedoms of assembly, media and expression intensified. We call on the Belarusian authorities to release immediately and unconditionally all detained."

On 2 October 2020, it imposed restrictive measures against 40 individuals identified as responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists in the wake of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process. The Council added 15 members of the Belarusian authorities, including Alexandr Lukashenko, as well as his son and National Security Adviser Viktor Lukashenko, to the list of sanctions, on 6 November 2020.

Read also: Repressions in Belarus are extremely small compared to yellow vests or BLM , EU reaction to Lukashenka’s presidential win is an example of Western double standards, PACE manifests double standards.

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francais.rt.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 222
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26/11/2020
  • Outlet language(s) French
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: France, Poland, Germany, Belarus, Russia
  • Keywords: Police, Protest
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