Asks Brussels to “act” to stop the “usurpation of power” by the ruling party
Dec. 18 () –
The outgoing president of Georgia, Salomé Zurabishvili, accused the European Union this Wednesday of “not being up to par” and having reacted “very late” to the political crisis that the country is going through, for which she has asked for support to defend “European values”.
This was expressed during a speech before the European Parliament, where he accused the Russian Government of being “testing” the country through tactics that include the use of existing “common democratic instruments.” “They even use elections to impose their leadership,” he said.
“If we are honest, Europe has not been up to par, it has remained halfway while the use of EU flags was banned in Tbilisi and the Georgian population is still waiting for strong measures to be imposed from Brussels and Washington” has asserted before stating that “there is much more that can and should be done.”
In this sense, he recalled that Georgians “have been fighting day and night” in favor of “democratic values” after the elections held at the end of October, in which the government party Georgian Dream won by a narrow margin. margin, results that have been rejected by the opposition.
According to Zurabishvili, it is this formation that has “usurped” power and has “taken over” the country’s institutions, which has distanced it from the path to European integration at a time of growing tension for some of the countries that formed part of the former Soviet Union and that are still located in Russia’s sphere of interest, such as Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova.
EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE
“I hope that we do not have to wait for the crisis to deepen for Europe to act. How can it do this? By offering political support, for example. We need attention at the highest level because Georgians cannot do this alone. They must know that they have your support”, he asserted before stating that it is necessary to go beyond the visits of some heads of Government or State of the Twenty-seven.
“These visits can be distorted and used for propaganda, so it is necessary that they be controlled so that they do not end up serving other interests,” he explained, while urging us to fight “against lies and misinformation.”
Zurabishvili has also indicated that Europe “must find sufficient influence to act” and has urged the release of hundreds of prisoners who have been unjustly imprisoned for their political ideas, as he stated.
“We need Europe to support the holding of new elections as the only peaceful path. There is no other way, no legislative changes or anything,” he noted. “Either we are going to elections or we will detour to some unknown place. It is necessary for Europe to make use of geopolitics. Europe is our greatest honor, it is our largest market, it is where our diaspora lives,” he clarified.
Zurabishvili has in turn drawn a parallel between the influence currently exercised by Russia over Georgia and the invasion of the Red Army in 2021. “We feel that we are back and that history is repeating itself. And that is why Georgians are acting as they do, because they see it as a deprivation of their freedom and their future,” he pointed out.
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