Orbán challenges the EU and NATO by endorsing the disputed victory of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party

“Prime Minister Orbán’s visit to Tbilisi takes place exclusively within the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Georgia. Prime Minister Orbán has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Tbilisi“, said this Monday Nabila Massrali, the spokesperson for the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell.

It is not the first time that the leader of the European radical right poses a challenge to Brussels’ official political line towards Moscow taking advantage of the fact that this semester he holds the semiannual presidency of the EU. In July, Orbán already scandalized his European partners with his self-proclaimed ‘peace mission’ for Ukraine, which led him to visit Vladimir Putin in Moscow, to Xi Jinping in Beijing now donald trump at Mar-a-Lago. President Ursula von der Leyen then announced a boycott of the Hungarian presidency, which does not appear to have had any effect.

“Official visit to Georgia after the elections. Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-European state. “Instead of useless sermons, they need our support on their European path,” the Hungarian Prime Minister justified this Monday. on your social network account.

Orbán was quick to celebrate Georgian Dream’s supposed victory even before the election results were published. “Congratulations to the prime minister Irakli Kobajidze and the Georgian Dream party for its overwhelming victory in today’s parliamentary elections. The town of Georgia “He knows what is best for his country and today he made his voice heard!” wrote the Hungarian Prime Minister. Saturday mid-afternoon also at X.

According to official results published later, the ruling Georgian Dream party won the election with more than 54% of the votes. However, neither the Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvilinot even the opposition parties have recognized these figures. What’s more, they openly talk about electoral fraud. Some accusations supported by the preliminary report of the OSCE electoral observer mission.

“We call on the Central Election Commission of Georgia and other relevant authorities to fulfill their duty to investigate and resolve electoral irregularities quickly, transparently and independently and the complaints about it. These irregularities must be clarified and resolved. This is a necessary step to restore confidence in the electoral process,” Borrell’s spokesperson claimed this Monday.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs highlighted this Sunday that, according to the OSCE, the election day “was marked by a tense atmosphere, with frequent breaches in the secrecy of the vote and several procedural inconsistencies, as well as reports of intimidation and pressure on voters that negatively affected public confidence in the process.

“The reports of pressure on votersparticularly about public sector employees, remained widespread throughout the campaign. This, together with the extensive monitoring of voters (by the authorities) on election day, raises concerns about the ability of some voters to cast their vote without fear of reprisals,” Borrell highlights.

“Some of the narratives used during this campaign have been directly and clearly inspired by Russian propaganda (…) It is fair to say that Russia has attempted to influence the elections in Georgia“his spokesperson insisted.

“The International Electoral Observation Mission has observed that the elections in Georgia were held under conditions unequal, undermining public confidence in the outcome. Reports of election-related violations must be thoroughly investigated,” said NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah.

Frozen negotiations

Georgia gained candidate status for accession to the European Union in December 2023, lagging behind Ukraine and Moldova. However, Brussels decided in June to paralyze the negotiations for joining the club (as well as part of the European funds for the Caucasian republic, 30 million for the Ministry of Defense) due to the approval of the Foreign Influence Transparency Law.

The rule requires media outlets, non-governmental organizations and other nonprofit groups to register as defenders of the interests of a foreign power if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. The opposition denounced that it was an attempt to silence democratic freedoms and Brussels called for the withdrawal of the Law, but the Georgian Dream Government has so far ignored all EU warnings.