Georgian President: Whoever Enters Parliament Today, Will Enter Russia

Courtesy of Giorgi Abdaladze

On November 22, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili discussed the ongoing political crisis in Georgia during an interview with Mtavari TV, outlining her hopes for its resolution and the steps needed from both Georgian citizens and international partners, The Caspian Post reports citing Georgian media.

President Zurabishvili began the interview by saying that that people shoudln’t lose hope due to the “stolen election” and should “first of all believe in themselves.” She noted that she comes from an emigrant family that, like other Georgian emigrants, always had hope of returning, of achieving independence in Georgia. Now that this independence has been achieved, she emphasized that the Georgian Dream “is taking it back, trying to take it away from us, but it is still not the reality that we should come to terms with.”

“[What should be done next?] We shouldn’t come to terms with this. First of all, we shouldn’t come to terms with the stolen elections,” she emphasized, adding that of course it’s not easy to change this government, because “if we could easily get rid of such governments that have a tendency towards authoritarianism and dictatorship, the world would be completely different.”

She stressed that it’s been more than a month that “the whole democratic world does not recognize” the Georgian Dream’s victory. She cited various reactions from the Western partners and said that the fact that there are no congratulatory messages coming from most countries means that “there is no coming to terms with this from the outside… there is no sign of recognition from America, neither from the old nor the new administration…”.

Moving on to discuss future steps to be taken, she commented on the opposition’s plans to renounce MP mandates and revoke proportional lists, saying that some parties may have different plans on how to do this, but speculating that the present situation bears similarity to 2020 is wrong.

“I’m sure they won’t [enter Parliament]. These [are] meaningless comparisons with 2020, which was something completely different – it wasn’t about the future of the country, the future of Europe, on the contrary, the Europeans said: enter the parliament and from there work on the reforms we require…’ and there was no feeling in society that the country was going in a different direction, there was no feeling that the elections were massively rigged… So it’s a very different situation. Whoever enters the parliament today will enter Russia.“

The President further noted that “until no political party enters [the Parliament], “[Georgian] Dream” remains alone. They are alone. They are alone in the Parliament, they are alone in the Government. The Government, the Parliament, is one party, under the vertical of one man. And all the institutions that exist in the country, absolutely all of them are completely dependent on this one party and this one person.”

Zurabishvili also pointed out that after her term ends, the new president will also be part of this subordinate vertical, recalling the comment of GD’s parliamentary majority leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, that GD will make sure that the next presidential candidate “will live up to expectations”. She stated: “That is, the requirement for the new president is that he/she be completely dependent, like the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Prosecutor’s Office, the SSSG, the Central Bank, all the regulatory committees… Absolutely the entire state has become one party and under one vertical. What is this called? Russia.”

As for her future plans, she noted that she’s not going anywhere, she’ll be here, and after her term ends, she’ll continue the resistance, though she didn’t mention in what form or from what position.

Speaking about the isolation that awaits the Georgian Dream government, President Zurabishvili noted that the first sign of it will come very soon and will be the financial and economic crisis of the country. She noted that Georgia “no longer has an IMF program”, has sold a large part of its national reserves, and is not a big country like Russia that can stand alone. She emphasized that the only way out of this crisis now is new elections.

As for the West’s position on Georgia, she said that the countries that have spent so much money and energy on Georgia’s development in the past won’t take away all that has been achieved. “The maximum [from the West] will be indifference and [they] will no longer be involved in our processes, which means complete isolation… I think this – internal and external isolation – will bring down this government.”

Commenting on the sanctions that have come from the West and that she said will come in the future, she noted that so far there haven’t been any concrete financial sanctions against the people who are responsible for the ongoing processes. “I have little faith in EU sanctions. There could be restrictions in other ways, on all the aid that our budget and our programs depend so much on. That would also aggravate the economic and financial crisis. Personal sanctions are much more difficult for the EU, which relies on the rule of consensus and 27 countries. America has a better handle on this instrument. As far as I know, there are ongoing discussions and negotiations between America and the EU about what can be done,” she noted.

Commenting on whether GD government prefers isolation to get close to Russia, President said that she doesn’t believe that this is the goal and noted that even Ivanishvili is afraid of Russia, “because he knows very well how Russia gets rid of the people it doesn’t need anymore.” She also said she doesn’t believe that the people who voted for GD want Russia, because the GD campaign, especially in the last few months, tried to create the illusion that they were for EU integration. She noted that the fact that 80% of the population and their own children want to join the EU, means that “going against their will is a huge risk for GD.”

Explaining the situation in the months leading up to the “stolen election”, she said that the GD had prepared and acted out a “Russian scenario”, the first stage of which was the reintroduction of the “Russian law”, which was completely unnecessary at the time. She said that this move was made to create a distraction and exhaust people, as Ivanishvili himself had announced. It also raised hopes that because so many people had taken to the streets to protest against the agents’ law, there would be a huge mobilization of people at the elections, which would have prevented GD from rigging the elections.

This point was also used by President Zurabishvili to explain why so many people, including herself, weren’t satisfied with the opposition. She said that the opposition’s failures seen now are due to the fact that they were not preparing to organize and lead street protests after the elections during the pre-elections period, instead they were preparing to implement the reforms set out in the Georgian Charter.

Despite the political crisis, the President remains hopeful: “Everything will happen. This charter will also be implemented, I am sure. This is our way. Everything is happening, everything is going this way… There will undoubtedly be new elections. The future and the destiny of this country is to be stable and to continue its progress, which I believe in. There will be new elections, there will be a technical government, there will be a coalition.”

Finally, President Zurabishvili called on the judges of the Constitutional Court to join the three colleagues who didn’t find the President guilty of violating the Constitution last year during the deliberations on the President’s appeal and “save the stability, democracy and European future of this country”. “Think about it, is the one or two years you have left [in office] worth going down in history as traitors to this country, or is it worth going down in history as true heroes? We saw a judge as a hero during the elections, and he earned the love of the entire country,” she concluded.