Constitutional Court of Georgia starts consideration of impeachment of the president

Impeachment of Georgian President

Today, October 3, the Constitutional Court of Georgia is considering the ruling party’s request to impeach the President at an oral hearing. Media called the process historic.

The President herself will not attend the hearing. A few hours before the start of the court session, President Salome Zurabishvili wrote that she will be represented by presidential office staffers Tamar Chugoshvili and Maia Kopaleishvili.

“Let it be what it will be, everything will be fine,” President Zurabishvili told TV Pirveli.

The substantive discussion of the case began at 12:00. Earlier, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia Merab Turava suggested in a conversation with the TV channel “Formula” that the hearing might last more than one day.

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On September 1, 2023, it became known that the ruling Georgian Dream party started impeachment proceedings against the president. It was stated that the president had grossly violated the constitution when she made several visits to foreign countries without the consent of the government.

In particular, we are talking about three working meetings: August 31 with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1 with the President of the European Council and September 6 with the President of France.

Zurabishvili stated that she makes foreign visits on her own funds and lobbies abroad to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava told reporters that “the Georgian president’s presence at the Constitutional Court session was expected.”

“The participation of representatives instead of her may prevent a perfect decision from being made. The president’s representatives will not be able to give details about the president’s visits and will only have answers to legal questions,” Turava said.

In addition, Turava told reporters, if the Constitutional Court is dissatisfied with the outcome of today’s case, then the president will be invited to personally attend the hearing tomorrow, October 4.

If the Constitutional Court agrees with the ruling party’s statement, the impeachment issue will go to parliament for a vote. It needs 100 votes for approval, and the ruling party needs to be able to get opposition MPs on its side if it is to succeed.

Inside the opposition, it is not ruled out that the Georgian Dream will manage to recruit some opposition representatives and get the 100 votes needed for impeachment.