Posted: 17.01.2025 11:09:06

Eismont: European journalists were interested not only in sports during 2nd European Games

European journalists who covered the 2nd European Games in Minsk were interested not only in sports – as noted by Natalya Eismont, the Press Secretary of the President of Belarus, in her talk with the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA reports

photo: www.belta.by

The main sport event of 2019 was the 2nd European Games, successfully held in Minsk and other cities of Belarus in the last decade of June.

“The 2nd European Games, held in Belarus in 2019, were a very bright sport page not only of 2019, but of the entire sport history of Belarus. Minsk was preparing, the whole country was preparing. The President, of course, supervised all the most important processes and instructed to make this holiday truly grandiose. It seems to be such simple approaches, but so familiar to us,” Ms. Eismont emphasised.

Aleksandr Lukashenko’s Press Secretary noted that attempts were made to politicise these processes, especially when preparations were underway. “I remember very well how, during the presentation of the European Games, European journalists were interested not only in sports details. Naturally, [they were interested in] politics. Unfortunately, politics and sport are now inseparable. Even the European sports officials demonstrated quite a positive mood. And journalists asked how it was possible that the European Games would be held, as they put it, ‘not in the most democratic country in the world’. And they were very interested in whether this embarrassed the European sports officials,” she emphasised.

Nevertheless, Ms. Eismont added, the European sports officials ‘held firm’ and said that Belarus should be discovered anew and that it was underappreciated. “Such statements were also made. As the results of this event showed, it was held for ten days at the highest level. These are not our assessments; these are the assessments of those who came here. Those very European sports officials were right and they came in Belarus and praised our sports festival,” the Belarusian leader’s spokesperson concluded.