President’s Interview with LCI: European Platform is Open for all pro-European Parties

President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili gave an interview to the French channel LCI on May 3, in which she she spoke about the prospects of EU integration in the context of Georgia’s current developments, the ongoing protests against the law on Foreign Agents and her plans for the European platform, which she established in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, and other issues.

When asked about the upcoming Parliamentary elections and whether she thought the Georgian opposition will be able to use this opportunity she said: “I am preparing the European platform which is open for all pro-European parties – the current and the future ones – and this platform will be our declaration for Europe and the action plan for the months to come.”

She added: “Obviously nothing would be done now till October, [in terms of opening the negotiations on membership] and this is a delay, but its a delay we could catch up on.”

Asked about the ongoing developments around the Foreign Agents’ law and whether she is going to use her veto power to block the highly controversial Foreign Agents law, President Zurabishvili said: “Even if my veto could be overcome, the main veto is in the streets, and it is never powerless.”

She said that “the population is protesting the law that is Russian, that is a duplicate of the laws adopted by Putin to muzzle Russia’s civil society” stressing: “but you can’t muzzle Georgia’s civil society in the same way.”

She said: “Nobody wants a revolution, we will go to elections that will be a referendum on European future, and I am sure that the 80% of Georgians who support it, will vote for it.”

Asked whether she is worried that Georgia might lose lose the EU candidate status as a result of the recent developments and steps of the government Salome Zurabisvhili said:” I am not worried that we will lose the status of the candidate, because this is the country that got it and not the government, and I hope and I believe the population would reaffirm its choice in October.”

She also noted that “the government is self-sabotaging in the interests of Moscow, but nobody can sabotage the European future of Georgia” which she stressed “fought for its independence for 26 centuries and against Russia – for two and a half centuries.”

Speaking about the ongoing protests against the Foreign Agents’ law and struggle for Georgia’s European future the President stressed: “It is not about Georgians defending their European future, it is also about Europe affirming its future, just like in Ukraine, where it is done militarily, so in Georgia in a civic way, Europe defends its right to be free, to have a security policy and the right to expand.” She also pointed out that Georgians are defending the European values through the protests.