Most Poles favour support for Belarusians

As many as 71 percent of Poles believe their country should support the democratic aspirations of Belarusians while only 20 percent believe Warsaw should remain neutral in Minsk's domestic conflict, according to a survey by the CBOS pollster.

Thirteen percent of those polled said Poland should offer special support to Belarusians.

Seventy-three percent said they were interested in the recent developments in Belarus, including a strong interest declared by 14 percent and a moderate interest by 59 percent. Twenty-six percent were not interested in the subject.

Seventy-three percent of Poles believe the recent presidential election in Belarus was not fair and their official result, showing an overwhelming support for the incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, was rigged.

Fifty-nine percent of Poles express sympathy towards Belarusian pro-democratic protesters and only 4 percent show the opposite attitude, while 29 percent remain indifferent and 8 percent have no clear view on the matter.

Belarus has been torn by protests since an August 9 presidential election, in which the country's strongman Alexander Lukashenko won a 6th term in office with 80.1 percent of the vote against main contender Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's 10.1 percent. Mass demonstrations against what is held to have been a rigged vote have been continuing ever since, sparking brutal reactions from the police and security forces.

CBOS ran the survey on a sample of 1,149 Poles on September 7-17, 2020.