"I wish to start by expressing my gratitude for re-electing me as President of this Assembly for a second term. I consider my re-election as a vote of confidence and approval of the work I have been doing since becoming PACE President in January 2024," PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos said at the opening of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 2025 winter session, after being re-elected for a second one-year term.
The President referred to his efforts to raise the visibility of PACE: 412 bilateral meetings in 2024 and a growth of 60 per cent in the international media coverage of PACE sessions: "We need to be more visible not for ourselves but for the principles we fight for," he underlined.
Mr Rousopoulos referred to the tireless work of the Assembly to ensure that the war in Ukraine "does not become normalised and that our Assembly remains focused and decisive" and referred to the so-called 'elections' that took place on 26 January in Belarus "where Mr Lukashenko reconfirmed himself as the country's ruler".
"We will discuss this matter later this week - and it is indeed very symbolic that these bogus elections coincide with the first ever participation of the delegation of the Belarusian opposition [a representative delegation of Belarusian democratic forces is in Strasbourg during the session] in the work of our Assembly. I wish to welcome them and stress that their presence in our Hemicycle is an important signal we send to the people of Belarus that Europe has not forgotten them."
Last year, the PACE President concluded: "I stated that we in this Assembly stand with the oppressed, not the oppressors, advocating for more diplomacy and less conflict in these turbulent times. This is what we must counteract. We must resist cynicism. We must resist everything that undermines democracy, the rule of law and human rights. This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. Let's give our best to support our principles against cynicism and anti-democratic obsessions."
