Charlemagne Prize goes to leading women of Belarusian opposition

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and two of her compatriots are to receive the 2022 Charlemagne Prize, awarded for work done in the service of European unity.

Tikhanovskaya, Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Zepkalo are being honoured for their efforts on behalf of freedom and democracy, Charlemagne Prize Directorate chairman Juergen Linden announced in Aachen on Friday.

The three recipients had accepted the award "with great pleasure," Linden said.

Tikhanovskaya wrote on Twitter that she felt "deeply honoured" by the award. Zepkalo said the award goes to all Belarusians "who do not give up their struggle."

"What these three women have achieved with their energy, their strength, their optimism ... represents a unique example to us," Linden said, adding that the prize had not been awarded in this form before in its 71-year history.

The three leading figures of the democratic Belarusian opposition are symbols of the spirit of freedom, he said. Their commitment against brutal state despotism, torture, oppression and the violation of elementary human rights had made a deep impression.

The awarding of the prize was a signal to a weary European society to once again stand up militantly for European values, Linden said. It is precisely at the EU's external borders that the fragile preciousness of the order of peace and freedom becomes apparent, he said.

Tikhanovskaya, 39, has become the face of the opposition to Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko after she stood for election as president last year instead of her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, who had been prevented from doing so.

He is currently imprisoned in Belarus, while she lives in exile across the border in EU member state Lithuania. The outcome of the election, which resulted in a large majority for Lukashenko has been rejected by the United States and the European Union.

Kolesnikova is currently serving an 11-year sentence in Minsk. Linden said her sister would join Tikhanovskaya and Zepkalo at the award ceremony on May 26 in the Coronation Hall of Aachen City Hall.

The prize has been awarded since 1950 for special services to European unification.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis was honoured for his pro-European stance in October 2021.

Aachen's Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen said that with these laureates the Charlemagne Prize would be carried into the future. "The commitment of these women is infinitely touching," said Keupen. They also stand for a new form of political debate. She also mentioned the repeated hand gestures of the three women: the fist, victory sign and heart.

Premier Hendrik Wuest of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, where Aachen is located, paid tribute to the fact that the laureates had set a democratic movement in motion without violence. "They stand up for the ideals that have made Europe great and form Europe's foundation," he said.

Among the prize's laureates are many European statesmen and politicians such as the first German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, France's President Emmanuel Macron and former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former British prime minister Toiny Blair. Pope John Paul II also received the award.

It commemorates Charlemagne (747/8-814), whose empire stretched over much of Western Europe and who often resided in Aachen.