Zakareishvili: “Georgian authorities are against EU accession”
“The Georgian authorities are doing everything to destroy any chance for the country to obtain the status of a candidate for EU accession to score points with Russia”, political analyst Paata Zakareishvili explains the new round of confrontation between the ruling party and the president.
The chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced on September 1 the launch of impeachment proceedings against President Salome Zurabishvili for “gross violation of the constitution”.
According to the Georgian constitution, the president can exercise representative powers in foreign relations only with the consent of the government, as the implementation of the country’s foreign policy is the responsibility of the government.
On 30 August, the Government announced that the government prevented her from visiting other countries and holding official meetings there, explaining that “the president opposes the interests of the country’s European integration”. On August 31 Zurabishvili went to Germany anyway and held a meeting with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. On September 1 she met with President of the European Council Charles Michel.
Earlier, the presidential administration released a statement saying that the purpose of the trip and meetings with European leaders was to lobby for support for granting Georgia candidate status for EU membership.
“All this is not being done to inform the West about something, because the West already sees very well what is happening in Georgia. The authorities are doing this so that their patron state, Russia, will be satisfied with the way the Georgian Dream is eradicating pro-European movements in Georgia”, Paata Zakareishvili said in an interview with Georgian Interpressnews.
“Their behavior is shameful. And it is even more shameful that such a talentless government would have no chance to stay in power if it were not for such a weak opposition.
Georgia has never had such a weak government and, unfortunately, never had such a weak opposition either.
Their main task is to somehow ensure that Georgia does not get the status of candidate. If the EU does grant this status to the country, they will appropriate this achievement for themselves and use it to win the elections. But they still prefer to win in some other way, to avoid getting the status.
They shamefully inform the EU that the president’s activities aimed at cooperation with the EU are unacceptable to them. It is amazing what they are doing.
It’s stupid and arrogant, but they hope they can get away with it because the opposition can’t unite. And they are scoring points for themselves in the face of Russia.
Zurabishvili is not violating but protecting the constitution, because the strategic direction of unity with Europe is written there in a direct text. It is the authorities that are violating the constitution when they do not allow Zurabishvili to fulfil these conditions of the constitution.
The president may be violating the constitution procedurally, but in essence she is protecting it.
There are two camps in the West:
1. There are those who do not agree with granting Georgia candidate status. They say that it will be a “Russian Trojan horse” in the context of the European Union. And such a Georgia, having the status, could confuse the agenda in the European Union. “Why do we need another Orban?” – they say.
Supporters of this approach in the West say that we should wait for parliamentary elections in 2024. Then it will be clear whether the people are still following the Georgian Dream or whether the people have managed to shake its power. Then we will talk about the status of the candidate, they say.
2. Others remind that Georgian Dream is not the whole of Georgia. And although the ruling party is doing everything it can to prevent the country from getting candidate status, it should still be given to the Georgian people. And if this is not done now, the West will lose Georgia and Russia will completely take over both Georgia and the Caucasus.
If we give Georgia candidate status, we will give a chance to Georgian society, to the opposition, say the supporters of this approach. And the EU will be able to reserve the opportunity to demand that the Georgian Dream fulfill the following list of conditions.
