⁍ Masked police dragged people into vans and fired stun grenades and tear gas to disperse crowds.

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⁍ Protesters chanted ‘impostor’ and ‘Sveta is our president’ as they marched through Minsk.

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⁍ At least 53 people were detained, human rights activists said.

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– Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in Belarus for the seventh straight weekend to demand the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power in the former Soviet republic for more than 25 years. Police in the capital, Minsk, dragged protesters into vans and fired stun grenades and tear gas to disperse crowds, reports Reuters. At least 53 people were detained, human rights activists say. Lukashenko’s opponents say he was re-elected to a sixth term last month despite claims of electoral fraud. The European Union has refused to recognize Lukashenko as president. “We are witnessing a power crisis in Belarus with an authoritarian administration that is not able to accept the logic of democracy,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in comments published on Sunday, per Reuters. “It is clear that Lukashenko must go.” Lukashenko, a former Soviet farm manager, denies electoral fraud and was inaugurated Wednesday in a ceremony held without any prior announcement. Some protesters wore fake crowns to mock Lukashenko’s inauguration. “First he falsified the elections, and then he falsified the inauguration,” says a 30-year-old logistics worker while protesting in Minsk. “We came to celebrate the people’s inauguration of the people’s president.” Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei on Saturday accused western countries preparing to impose new sanctions on Minsk of attempting to sow “chaos and anarchy.”