Constitutional Court of Georgia finalizes hearings on impeachment of president

Court hearings on impeachment of president

The Constitutional Court of Georgia has finalized hearings on the impeachment of the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, which were held for three days. The opinion of the court should be published within the next two weeks.

If the court recognizes the alleged violation of the constitution by Salome Zurabishvili, the process will already fall within the competence of the Parliament. The ruling Georgian Dream party does not have the necessary support at this stage.

Zurabishvili herself was not present at the sessions. Her interests were represented in court by former Vice Speaker of the Parliament Tamar Chugoshvili and former Constitutional Court Judge Maia Kopaleishvili.

The plaintiff’s side was represented by the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze, head of the parliamentary committee on legal issues Henri Ohanashvili, and MPs Giorgi Kakhiani and Tengiz Sharmanashvili.

“It depends on your decision whether the constitution of Georgia will be preserved. At this stage, the question arises depending on your decision – will Georgia remain a parliamentary republic or will it turn into an undefined hybrid system?”, Irakli Kobakhidze addressed the judges in his closing speech.

“They [the current authorities] don’t even care whether the constitution was really violated or not, their concern is purely political, they are angry and dissatisfied with the president of Georgia and want to remove her from office. I really hope that the Constitutional Court will not interfere in the political process,” Maya Kopaleishvili said.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that President Salome Zurabishvili was “let in everywhere” but then she lost confidence. According to his own explanation, he told European leaders about the impeachment and “they understood it”, but said that what was happening looked extremely “ugly”.

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

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 obtain for Georgia the status of candidate for EU membership.

Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava told reporters that the president’s representatives will not be able to elaborate on the president’s visits and would only answer legal questions.

Inside the opposition, they do not rule out that the Georgian Dream will manage to recruit some opposition representatives and gain the 100 votes needed for impeachment.