President: GD Sabotages Georgia’s European Future

On April 3, President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili said that the ruling Georgian Dream party “has shown its face” and is engaged in “sabotaging” Georgia’s European future. She made this statement at the press briefing following the announcement by the Parliamentary majority that it is reintroducing the the draft law on foreign agents, which was dropped last year after the massive rallies on March 7-9.

“Georgian Dream has made a very clear statement. It said No [to Europe] on all the directions that were inscribed in the previous recommendations, that are inscribed in today’s nine recommendations… on all the issues leading to our tomorrow and the opening of accession negotiations. It said a clear No [to Europe] on all these directions,” the President said.

Among other things, President Zurabishvili criticized the ruling party for refusing to carry out necessary judicial reforms, thereby sacrificing Georgia’s European future. She also criticized the ruling party’s refusal to streamline the voting process for emigrants, to ensure fair elections, to take anti-corruption measures and for issuing ultimatums to the United States.

As for the gender equality, according to the President the ruling Georgian Dream said No to women’s rights, which was “practically the only implemented recommendation [out of the recommendations put forward by the EU].

President accused the ruling Georgian Dream of trying to “challenge” the Georgian society and the international partners, be it through the “provocative” anti-LGBT bill or the reintroduction of the Russian law.

“There is only one answer to this obscenity, rudeness and great insult to Georgia, which is called Russian law and Russian path – it is to express our European opinion through elections,” the President of Georgia said, adding that “we must all go to the elections under one European flag. Probably with several parties, but under one flag and that is the European flag.”

In this context, she mentioned that the work is underway on the European action plan, “which does not mean the unification of the parties, but it means their widening, and most importantly, it means the unification of the society, it means the national agreement on Europe”.

The President said that the Georgian Dream has neither Georgian nor the European spirit, adding: “Russia will never be able to return…”

Also Read:

• 03/02/2024 – PM Kobakhidze Hopes to Europeanize NGOs with Reintroduced Foreign Agents Bill
• 03/02/2024 – Domestic Reactions to Reintroduction of Draft Law on Foreign Agents
• 03/04/2024 – International Reactions to Reintroduction of Draft Law on Foreign Agents

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)