Lukashenko made the remark at a news conference in the Minsk region last week, Poland’s private broadcaster Polsat News reported.
Asked about Poland’s parliamentary election, the Belarusian leader said, according to Polsat News: “The Poles did really well. I did not expect a result like this. They simply refused to play the ruling party’s game.”
Lukashenko added, as quoted by Polsat News: “I applaud the people of Poland. Well done.“
The Belarusian dictator said that after the election “Poland won’t be the same anymore,” adding that Polish voters had sent the ruling party "the following message: 'If you won’t listen to us, we’ll vote you out,'" according to Polsat News.
Lukashenko was also quoted as saying that Belarus’ neighbours, including Poland, “are God-given and we should live in peace with them.”
During Poland’s election campaign, Belarusian state media, including the Belta news agency, accused the Polish government of silencing dissenting voices and the country’s public broadcasters of featuring only government politicians, Polsat News reported.
According to Belarusian outlets, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party portrayed Poland as “a happy colony of the West,” while those with anti-government views were painted as “enemies or spies in the pay of China, Russia or Belarus,” Polsat News added.
Poland elects new parliament
The ruling conservatives won Poland's October 15 election, but lost their parliamentary majority, increasing the likelihood of an opposition government.
The Law and Justice party, allied with two smaller groupings in a United Right coalition, claimed 35.4 percent of the vote and 194 seats in elections to the lower house of parliament.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition bloc, the Civic Coalition, led by Tusk's Civic Platform (PO) party, won 30.7 percent of the vote and 157 seats.
The centre-right opposition Third Way alliance finished third at the ballot box with 14.4 percent of the vote and 65 seats, and the opposition New Left party finished fourth with 8.6 percent and 26 seats.
The far-right Confederation group, with 7.2 percent of the vote, also crossed the 5-percent voter support threshold that Polish parties need to clear to enter parliament. It secured 18 lower-house seats.
The Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the New Left together hold 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house and have declared their intention to form a coalition government.
In addition to seizing control of the lower house, the opposition won 66 senatorial seats, while the ruling conservatives secured 34 seats in the upper house of Poland's bicameral parliament.
President Andrzej Duda has announced that he will convene the first session of Poland's newly elected parliament on November 13.
(pm/gs)
Source: Polsat News, BELTA
