The anti-European rhetoric of the Georgian authorities
“Saakashvili should leave us alone for a while and write a book—he managed to harm the country from jail, from Ukraine, and for the first time, I see a person being able to do this from a hospital,” said political analyst Gia Khukhashvili on the Dgis Newsroom program, in connection with the ongoing political debate regarding the pardon of Saakashvili.
As Khukhashvili noted, the ‘National Movement’ [a party created by Saakashvili] has no other asset than to ask for Saakashvili’s pardon, but this would be a politically incorrect decision on the part of the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili.
Part of the opposition has introduced a draft amnesty law into parliament. Currently, the opposition is holding consultations in support of the bill. Yago Khvichia, the leader of the opposition party ‘Girchi’, stated that the amnesty would cover all prisoners, including Mikheil Saakashvili.
Furthermore, the president of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, was asked about the possible pardon of Mikheil Saakashvili during the HARDtalk BBC program. The president did not respond and only spoke about the possibility of extraditing the former president.
On February 18, during a general discussion at the Munich conference, Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski addressed Salome Zourabichvili regarding Mikheil Saakashvili, asking about his possible pardon, but the president of Georgia avoided the question.
Gia Khukhashvili: “The National Movement understands perfectly well that asking for Saakashvili’s pardon is an absolutely hopeless political path, but what else could they do. The staff of ‘Mtavari Arkhi’ [a popular independent television channel] are asking for Saakashvili’s pardon, but they do not have hope for it.
The government does not want Mikhail Saakashvili running around here with flags. He is not a citizen of Georgia, so the authorities have two scenarios:
Several cases have been initiated against Saakashvili, not just one. So the government has all the tools to keep him in jail, even if there is a pardon. The authorities simply will not grant him a pardon for all his criminal cases at once.
The second scenario: they will put him in a car, then take him to the airport and deport him. Saakashvili is not a citizen of Georgia and is an unwanted person in the country. And that’s how it will all end.”
“As for Salome Zourabichvili, my opinion is as follows: she will not grant a pardon [to Saakashvili], and doing so would be politically incorrect given the long-term state tasks we are facing. What is the government’s strategy? To turn the ‘National Movement’ and Misha into a kind of ‘Titanic’, then send all opponents onto this ship and then sink it.
This is their political technology; they haven’t learned anything else. Therefore, both the government and the ‘National Movement’ organize the Misha factor; they both use him to fulfill their tasks. If Zourabichvili intends to actively engage in politics in the future, then in this case, pardoning Saakashvili will have negative consequences”.
“The Russian Line” – why Georgian authorities harshly criticize the European Parliament’s resolution on Saakashvili
“The European Parliament is a legislative-type structure in the European Union. You might not like some of its decisions, and you criticize them. Metaphorically speaking, if you want to live in a common house, you can criticize your brother, but you cannot curse him. And [our authorities] are doing exactly that. They accuse them [in the European Parliament] of allegedly receiving bribes and therefore saying all sorts of nasty things [about the Georgian authorities].
This is a typically Russian propaganda line that members of the European Parliament are corrupt, that Europe is a nest of depravity. Isn’t it madness to demand that the European Union distance itself from the decisions of the European Parliament?
Insults will not be liked by the executive body, when its parliament is scolded by some candidate country that has squeezed inside through intrigues and shouts about a second front, now waving the same flags that tey were burning just yesterday, they can soon be sick and tired of it.”
