The Daily Beat: 9 May
On May 9, Georgia modestly marked its contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany. According to established political tradition, the prime minister and other government officials congratulated a handful of remaining veterans. They laid a wreath at the monument to an Unknown Soldier at central Vake Park in Tbilisi. After greeting the veterans, Irakli Garbashvili commented for the media, not missing the opportunity to slam the opposition, labeling them as “unsuccessful” and “bankrupt.” He also spoke of traditional values and pledged to protect minority rights while not allowing aggressive minority propaganda against the population. PM Garibashvili did not mention Europe Day, which marks the Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1950.
Conversely, President Salome Zurabishvili did not mark WWII day, but instead hosted a public Europe Day event held in front of the president’s palace. She addressed the public and stressed that the EU is the only union that has fully preserved its member states’ identity and managed to preserve their peace. “I hope that we bring Europe here, and here we get everything that we go to Europe for,” the president said.
European Council President Charles Michel also spoke via video link at the Europe Day event, delivering messages of support and encouragement for the Georgian people’s EU aspirations. “The people of Georgia made a clear choice, a clear choice of European values and freedom. That is why the country’s future is in our common family,” Charles Michel said, adding that Europe stands with Georgia.
As the government and the president put on their own shows, one celebrating Victory Day and the other Europe Day, the parliament kicked off the day with a rather clumsy May 9 congratulatory post featuring a photo of the society soldier (believed by some to be ethnically Georgian Meliton Kantaria) hoisting the Soviet flag over captured Reichstag. Glorifying the Soviet (and Nazi) symbols is banned by law in Georgia, making the parliament a target of media and social media criticism. The parliament quietly replaced the photo with the monument to an Unknown Soldier.
