It is clear Lukashenko 'has to go': Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron says it is clear that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "has to go," he told a French weekly.

"It is a crisis of power, an authoritarian power that cannot accept the logic of democracy and which is hanging on by force. It is clear that Lukashenko has to go," he told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, according to news agency AFP.

Macron's comments come after the European Union issued a statement this week renewing its claim that Belarus's August 9 election was "neither free nor fair" and that it would not recognize Lukashenko as president.