President’s Interview to France 24: Clarity of Messages is What we Need

On 1 May, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili gave an interview to France 24 in which she discussed developments regarding the Foreign Agents Law, Georgia’s EU bid, the anti-Western rhetoric and leanings of the ruling Georgian Dream, and other issues.

When asked to articulate her position on the controversial Foreign Agents Law, she said: “I think we are in a way beyond the controversial law,” which she said was a “duplicate” of the Russian law passed under President Putin, and which had been used in recent years “to suppress civil society, non-governmental organisations”. She called the reintroduction of the bill “a provocation to civil society”, which rejected the law last year. She stressed that the bill was seen by the Georgian population and the CSO community “as an attempt to really suppress critical voices”.

However, the President stressed that the biggest concern today is not so much the Russian law, but the Russian government, because the statements, “the statement” that we heard just two days ago from the honorary president of the Georgian Dream, the ruling party, Mr Ivanishvili was “a declaration of war against our partners, against the United States and the European Union.”

She particularly recalled the GD officials call U.S. , EU “the [global] party of war”, “calling them all agents, calling me an agent of the party of war”, as well as calling the agents of “revolution and subversion” all the civil society organizations and all the parties in Georgia, as well as the youth who are on the streets.” She stressed that “these are the very terms” that President Putin uses against his own civil society.

Asked what will happen if the bill is adopted in its third hearing and whether the violence could get worse and whether Georgia is on the brink of instability Salome Zurabishvili said that she does not think it’s instability. She said that the youths that are taking to the streets “to defend their European future” are “are very reasonable and very conscious of the fact that the country that has two occupied territories by Russia cannot afford instability. She stressed that the demonstrators “protesting very peacefully” and that the “provocations come from police and special forces.” She said she is sure the restraint will be exercised “because the way is long until the elections.”

The President said the elections will herald the end of “this Russian law” and “to many other laws that have been passed in recent months”.

President Zurabishvili stressed that the aim and the objective are very clear: “It’s to keep Georgia in line with its European future, with what is written in the constitution of Georgia, that European integration is an obligation for all the institutions of Georgia to work toward.” “And that is something that the Georgian population understands very well and is going to defend very well,” she concluded.

Asked whether she thinks Russia is in a position to somehow to exploit the issue of occupied Georgian territories Salome Zurabishvili said that “Russia is seeing that the European pass of Georgia is something very real” and that Armenia “is taking the same path” and that Azerbaijan “is leaning towards a partnership with Turkey”, and thus “the Caucasus and the Black Sea is going out of the influence of Russia.” Salome Zurabishvili said in her view “it’s an attempt by Russia to leverage the Georgian Dream and “its honorary president” [Bidzina Ivanishvili] as the European future for Georgia has become very real.

She emphasized this is unacceptable for a country with more than two centuries experience of Russian imperialism.

When asked whether the Georgian Dream is trying to push the country towards Moscow the President said that there were indeed question marks about why GD was not taking more direct measures towards EU integration and was not implementing the EC recommendations. She said however, that the speech by Bidizna Ivanishvili two days ago, was an “anti-Western, anti-European declaration.” That’s unacceptable to the Georgian people, she stressed.

Asked whether there is anything that the EU could do to help Salome Zurabishvili said that she expects from the EU “very clear attention.” She said that although there are many global crises all over the world and Georgia is not necessarily in the center of attention, as a EU candidate country that is on the verge of getting to the accession negotiations, with population very enthusiastic about EU integration, needs “the attention and we need clarity from the European Union that they understand that the population wants the EU” and that “the governing forces today are not doing all the necessary for that.”

“The clarity of the messages is what we need,” Salome Zurabishvili adding: “the rest is to be done by us.”

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