Georgian government to file lawsuit against president for allegedly violating constitution

Georgian government takes President Zurabishvili to court

The ruling Georgian Dream party claims that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has violated the country’s constitution and will file a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court against her. The party refers Salome Zurabishvili’s meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, which took place in February, to violations of the constitution.

There has never been a case in Georgia where an incumbent president has been sued for violating the constitution.

The ruling party’s political council released a three-page letter today saying “no one can let the president rewrite the constitution.”

The letter says that “the government of Georgia is forced to appeal to the Constitutional Court in the near future and demand confirmation of the violation of the constitution by the president”.

The ruling party was dissatisfied with yesterday’s parliamentary speech by the president. Salome Zurabishvili presented her annual report to the Parliament.

She entered the meeting room together with the interim representative of Ukraine and showed photos of the war in Ukraine.

In her speech, Zurabishvili criticized the government for its limited policy towards Ukraine: “The government sins when it does not dare to express what our history and dignity dictate”.

The violations were discovered by Georgian Dream in yesterday’s parliamentary speech by the president.

What exactly is the party accusing the president of:

1.Georgian Dream believes that the President violated the Constitution when she went on foreign visits without the consent of the Georgian government.

“According to the constitution, the president of Georgia can conduct international negotiations and exercise representative powers only with the consent of the government”, Georgian Dream said in a statement.

Speaking in parliament on March 14, Salome Zurabishvili announced that she had canceled several international visits on February 26 – to Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Warsaw. However, according to her, she used personal contacts and held personal meetings instead of canceled working visits.

2. Georgian Dream claims that when the president calls for a meeting of the Security Council, it violates the constitution.

On March 14, Zurabishvili criticized the government for failing to convene the country’s Security Council amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. She also criticized the ruling party for making decisions on its own, without the participation of the commander-in-chief:

“The government sins when the party is given priority in decision-making over state institutions. Would anyone believe that in such a difficult situation the Security Council never met and military threats were not discussed jointly in the presence of the Supreme Commander? This must be corrected immediately”.

In response, Georgian Dream reminded the President that “The Security Council is an advisory government body of the Prime Minister” in which the President does not participate.

“It is clear that the president of Georgia either does not read the constitution of Georgia and still does not understand its essence, or she is trying to rewrite the constitution”.

Georgian Dream also advises the president to better understand the “status of commander-in-chief”: “In a parliamentary republic, this status only entails a ceremonial burden”, recalls Zurabishvili’s party.

3. Georgian Dream alleges that the president grossly violated the Constitution when she appeared in parliament with a representative of the Ukrainian embassy.

“Without agreement with the parliament, the acting ambassador of Ukraine was invited to the main space of the session hall, which, according to the constitution and regulations, only the speaker of parliament has the right to do”, the Georgian Dream statement says.

4. The political council of the Georgian Dream considers the fact that the president did not agree on the date of her speech with the parliament a “gross violation” of the constitution.

Has the president really violated the constitution?

The non-governmental organization Freedom of Information Development Institute (IDFI) analyzes the accusations made by the Georgian authorities against President Zurabishvili. The organization believes that the president did not violate the constitution.

“According to our assessment, all the circumstances indicate that the president, as the head of state, was simply exercising the powers / duties assigned to her by the constitution. Also, in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the strengthening of the role of the president in Georgia’s foreign and domestic policy is not caused by the president’s violation of his constitutional mandate, but by passive actions and problematic assessments on the part of the parliament and government”, the organization said in a statement.

Expert and constitutionalist Avtandil Demetrashvili told Radio Liberty that Zurabishvili’s actions do not violate the constitution.

“Salome Zurabishvili’s visits to Europe did not violate any norms of the constitution. These were informal meetings. In this case, she did not represent Georgia, which required the consent of the government. If I were a member of the constitutional court, I would have made a negative conclusion”, he said.

What if the Constitutional Court finds that the president violated the constitution?

If the court establishes that the president has violated the constitution by her actions, then Georgian Dream may begin the impeachment procedure.

Constitutionalist Vakhtang Khmaladze told the Interpress news agency that the impeachment of Zurabishvili would be technically difficult for Georgian Dream:

“I don’t think that in the current political situation, Georgian Dream will complete the impeachment procedure, that is, remove the president from office, because it needs a 2/3 majority in parliament, so a large part of the opposition should support their decision. Georgian Dream will not be able to remove Zurabishvili”, Khmaladze said.

“Dispute between president and government is political, not legal”

Since 2018, after the presidential elections, it has become clear “that the time will come when Salome Zurabishvili will no longer be able to ‘swallow’ everything that Georgian Dream does, and, conversely, Georgian Dream will not be able to swallow what Zurabishvili does”, says David Usupashvili, former speaker of parliament and a member of the opposition Lelo party.

Usupashvili believes that this moment arose against the backdrop of events related to Ukraine.

“We are dealing with a normal event that has become a tradition in this country, but now is not the time for that. Now it is necessary to unite and consolidate forces, but Mechta can only divide and has now chosen this path”, Usupashvili said.

Relations between Zurabishvili and the ruling party have been strained lately, and the Ukrainian crisis has made this particularly clear – Zurabishvili is pushing for more radical steps in support of Ukraine, and the government is opting for a policy of distancing.