On December 18, President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili addressed the European Parliament. You can see/listen the full speech on the website of the European Parliament.
Opening speech was made by the President Roberta Metsola:
“President, welcome back to the European Parliament! When you last visited this house, we discussed your country’s progress towards joining our European family. Today, this journey is under threat. The European Parliament condemns any repression of the opposition and the imprisonment of peaceful protesters. These actions roll back the successful steps we have taken together in recent years. In response to this situation, this house has called for decisive action and we reiterate that now. I know that there are many in Georgia, who fear for their country’s future, and I also know that I speak for this entire house, when I say to all those Georgians who look to Europe for support and for their future, that they are not alone: we see you, we hear you, we are with you, so this house stands strong with the people of Georgia, and your journey towards Europe, and our door will always remain open so I give the floor to you dear President Salome Zourabichvili.”
President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili:
“Thank you Madame President, thank you all for allowing me at this very crucial time for Georgia to be here and to be able to testify about what is happening today in my country. I want also to thank the delegation of the European parliamentarians that were some few days ago in Georgia for their presence, which is at this stage very important.
It is a crucial time because at some days and some moments we feel like we are in 1921, that things are repeating themselves, and that is probably what explains the courage with which and the determination with which the Georgian people are today reacting to what they see as a depossession of their freedom, of their future. Of their, in a way – independence, even formally that is not the case. People have been on the streets now one says, for 21 days in a very interesting movement that was first during the nights then during the days with many different segments of the population; practically this movement now encompasses the whole society.
But to be true it’s not only 21 days; these protests were immediately after the elections, these protests were this spring when the Russian law was reintroduced the second time, these protests were last spring when the Russian law was introduced for the first time, and these protests have been about the specificity or the characteristic of Georgia each time and every time when the people of Georgia felt that there was a threat, a danger to what they feel as their freedom, at their Europeanity, at their independence. Never has there been a massive protest in Georgia about social conditions, and there would be many reasons for that because the situation there too is not very satisfactory to say the least, but the only time when people massively in Georgia take up to the streets it’s when they feel that it is an existential question that is at stake, and that is the case today, and this is a very peaceful movement, a very massive civil disobedience movement in a way, and that is asking only two things: give me my voice back because of the stolen elections, give me my future and my European future back, and that is a request for new elections.
It is not a revolutionary movement in that sense because there are no demands about who should be thrown out of which power; it’s really let’s get back to elections in a free and fair environment and let’s see what is, where is the will of the people in Georgia today which they’re trying to show on the streets, but let’s see it in a democratic way in the ballot, and there are not two parts of Georgia, that has been an attempt to convey that there might be, we might be, we might be going towards a civil confrontation, there are no two parts; there is a Georgian people on one side and the repressive apparatus of one party on the other side, and that’s it.
Any other attempt and to demonstrate even more of that is that the ruling party, despite and I’ll come to that, having taken a very definite Russian path, at times still has to pretend that they’re somehow going to go back to Europe, and why is that? Because even among their first circle or last circle of supporters, people want this European path as 80% or 90% of the Georgian population has been saying over and over all the opinion polls and all the elections in this country since the independence, and so the Georgian Dream leaders, if they want to have some part of dream that remains, have to maintain that hope somehow.
So this started with before the elections in fact with what was and maybe we didn’t see it, maybe I didn’t see it clearly enough, the Russian path of the Georgian Dream which started really with the 2019 Gavrilov incident that you might remember when this Russian was invited to take the seat of the President of the Georgian Parliament, which was very strange appeared as an incident and then was Covid and it was forgotten, but then we came to the Charles Michel document’s rejection which was a much more clear sign of moving away from the reforms that were asked by the European Union and going in another direction.
And then came February 2022 Ukraine war and on the 25th of February 24 was the date of the start of the Russian aggression; 25th of February the Prime Minister goes to the Georgian occupation monument of 1921 Russian occupation and there declares that Georgia does not intend to engage, that’s his words, in financial and economic sanctions; {that} this decision is based solely on national interest of our country. At that time there are no sanctions yet, and then we go on 2023 the first Russian law, the reintroduction of the Russian flights, Russian rhetoric about many things about Ukraine, the Prime Minister accuses NATO of in a way provoking the prolongation of the war if not starting the war at least.
2024 second Russian law and the Russian rhetoric that goes to new heights with a speech by the one man one ruler of Georgia, Mr Ivanishvili that talks about the “global war party” and accuses our European and Western partners of being responsible for almost everything, and gradually meanwhile during this in the back of this Russian or anti-western rhetoric with LGBT tones with lots of accusaition about the fact that Europe and America are going to take away our identity, our national values, and so on which is something that many of you have heard in another country, north of Georgia.
And the construction of a Russian state is something that goes gradually but very definitely. All institutions pass under the control of the one party parliament government – Central Election Commission with new roles for the elections, and that’s a preparation for what has to come, Central Bank, anti-corruption office, even the pension fund, which is reformed of course, the justice system – completely and totally under the control from down to up, to the Constitutional Court.
And that’s when we come to the Russian elections, Russian of course between brackets because it’s an election that is systematically, massively, massively rigged and very sophisticated; it’s not the usual frauds that you can see in elections, it was very well planned, because the changes to the Electoral code were started much earlier, giving the full control of the Central Election Commission to the people that were appointed by the head of the Central Election Commission, who himself was designated not under the rules that were proposed by the European Union but principally designated and for five years.
The electronic vote that was coming in was also something that was designed in a specific way without any of the controls that could have been with imprints or with face recognition; call centers that were denounced earlier as using the pensions of some of the European elderly, and there are investigations on that, but the same call centers or new call centers were used during the election, 3,500 of them, administrative resources of course and intimidation over the public sector much before the elections propaganda Russian style of course I already talked about it before and during the elections with those posters that you might have seen that put together the destruction in Ukraine – of Cathedral, theaters and on the other side the blooming Georgia which shocked so much the Georgian audience that they had to withdraw them {image comparisons} because that’s not the Georgian way and character so much, it was a Russian imprint on those posters and videos of the same kind.
And the hate speech of course all over, talks from the official ruling party about the fact that the opposition parties wanted to overthrow the government and that they were going to be abolished right after the elections and their leaders arrested and that has been going on and on, black money used in huge amounts because about 600 million laris which is about $200 million had to be sold during the months of October to compensate for the black money that was used only during that or those two months; no police to be found during the elections. I personally was seeing the violence that was happening in some of the districts and precincts, {I} called on the minister of internal affairs and could not reach him not on his mobile phone not on the governmental network – nowhere, nor his deputy, and to this day, he has not called back.
No courts to judge the irregularities and the pleas that were introduced, except one, a very famous case, because that was the one that experimented the lack of confidentiality of the electronic system the way it was used and of course he was the judge that was so brave to uphold this plea, {that} was not followed up by the court of appeal and none of the other appeals were ever recognized. Two main principles were violated during the election that are sufficient to show that any result would have been completely different: one is the universality with over one million of our members of diaspora – many of them in Strasburg by the way, and Strasburg is a very good case, because that was refused the opening of a precinct here, whereas normally they say that if there is an embassy, that can be the case, but Strasburg where there are many Georgians and where there were all the rules were respected for the opening of a precinct was not allowed and on 1 million diaspora members only 34,000 voted when the whole of diaspora was very mobilized because they knew that the election was about – Europe or Russia.
The second principle violated was that of confidentiality because of the way that the electronic system was used, plus party cameras over the machines and the commissars of the commission that were all appointed by the head of the Central Election Commission; those were introduced as plead by myself and the political parties in the Constitutional Court despite what we know about the independence of the so-called of the Constitutional Court, but just to show and with a hope that maybe some judges would understand that this was a way out of a crisis, to recognize that the results had been completely rigged and to allow for a constitutional way towards new elections, but that was a hope that was not met and there is another plea that is introduced by the Georgian citizens by a group of Georgian citizens to the court in Strasburg and that is to say that we want to {apply} all the legal ways that can be envisaged in order to get out and to get through political solution, {through} this very deep crisis.
What is even more important is that after the elections we are seeing an accelerated process and an accelerated Russian path – not only the violations of the Constitution that happened at the time of the elections and after the elections, {but also} the fact that the first session of the parliament that can be called only by me, was called by a {chairperson} of the parliament that was not at that time {chairperson} of the parliament and that is not recognized by the Constitution and they didn’t leave any time for the Constitutional Court to examine the pleas that were introduced, and met the first session of the parliament without waiting {for Constitutional Court decision}, which is another anti-constitutional decision.
And of course on the 28 of November the declaration of what we consider of war, which says that the Prime Minister that at that point has no legitimacy because these elections are deeply contested but also has no mandate for that, because the Constitution says very specifically that every institution in Georgia has to do everything possible in order to facilitate, accelerate the Euro-Atlantic integration process and that Constitution was in large part written by the same Prime Minister that goes against the Constitution and says under what mandate that he suspends the negotiations which – there are no negotiations really ongoing yet and that was what we were expecting and what is really suspending is the European future of Georgia without any really mandate or right to do so.
And so at that point in time everything already in Georgia is controlled by the one party or one man rule, it’s difficult to distinguish, what remains outside of that control are the opposition media and I want to underline that because out of three of them two are in a very dire financial crisis that is probably something that is also provoked – {it is} difficult to prove it at that point but it’s very strange; the non-governmental organizations that are under the Damocles sword of the Russian law, and the way it is going to be implemented, the presidency here I am with two impeachments in my back, and the fact that in one week’s time almost I won’t have any security to secure me, but I don’t know whether security at this point means any form of, really, security. And at that same time and that is maybe more important there, is a campaign of hate and accusations from some small groups that are promising me all kinds of things after the elections.
Political parties that stay of course out of the control of the state, many of their leaders have been arrested and then released and arrested in the past days, but the main threat that’s above them is what had been announced before the elections by Mr Ivanishvili and by the members of the government, that they would abolish some of the parties – and that’s National Movement {party} in the first place, but we’re all called “National Movement” supporters, so it concerns almost everyone we’re all {in their words} “fascist, liberal fascist” – {which} is a new terminology, and what remains really – is the civil society, and you’ve all seen the scenes of how the civil society is treated, what form of repression what form of intimidations {are applied against them}.
And there are new laws to add to that, that have been hastily adopted, while people are on the streets, and nobody’s really paying attention to what happens in the parliament. One law that allows for preventive arrests under Orwell conditions and a law that is very serious on public service, because it really cuts down and destroys all the work that was done for some years to bring about this very European law on public service that guaranteed impartiality, professionalism, career and that means that the administration had a memory, now they have cut that out, they can fire anyone without any protection, they can promote anyone without any criteria or any diploma, that seems to be now the new rule, and it really means that there will be the complete politicization of the public service and that also an instrument for intimidation of the people that have been protesting from the public service have been signing petitions all over, for instance, the Foreign Ministry, but also the Justice Ministry, and the Education Ministry – very widely, so all these people are feeling that they are under some form of surveillance and that measures might be at any time taken against them without any need for any demonstration.
And another form of Russification I would say of the state model are the lies as a modus operandi; we have seen the lies already with the Russian law when Mr Ivanishvili himself and the Prime Minister then promised that never again, this law was not going to be introduced, and then, not even a year after – it was reintroduced and now we are seeing and you are seeing all of the lies, when the official statements are describing the positions of your countries, of some of your countries during the Council of Foreign Affairs, which you had to rectify with statements, but “good news” – I want to let you know that those statements of rectification are not publicized by either the public television or of course by the governmental televisions, so the people that are supporting the Georgian Dream and are watching these televisions do not know that their government is lying and after having lied, {it} is also insulting its partners.
So what is important to finally get to is that it’s not a question today of politics or of polarization, or of a government that has overextended its authority, not to say authoritarianism, it’s really about this radical choice that was presented during the elections to the voters, and it’s a vote about Georgia and its future and it must be clear that Georgians will not stop, until Georgia gets free and fair elections, because that is the only democratic political way out of this situation, but it is also about you, it is about Europe, first of all it’s about Europe’s credibility, a country that just received candidate status – Europe cannot afford to let that country trample all democratic rules and norms after having rejected or ignored all of European Union’s 12 and nine recommendations, it cannot afford to be humiliated, in what are its main principles.
Then it’s about Europe’s strategic interests: Georgia is, and has been, and I’m sure – will be, the West and Europe’s foothold in the region, one that Russia is trying to take over, because Russia remembers its imperial time generals that used to say that – who holds Tbilisi, holds the Caucasus, and that for Russia has not changed, and if Georgia falls under Russian control and again, I am not talking about a military intervention, I’m talking about this electoral and constitutional intervention, the stakes are very high; that concerns Black Sea security, that concerns everything linked to connectivity to Central and South Asia, it concerns Armenia’s European future, so it’s much more than just Georgia and just Georgia’s democracy, or just Georgia’s political choices, and Georgia is part for Europe – of its global struggle that Russia is waging against it; after Russia lost in Syria, should it win in Georgia? After Russia failed to impose itself in Ukraine, should it win in Georgia? After Russia failed in Moldova, should it win in Georgia? And after it failed, and I hope it will fail very soon again, in Romania, should it win in Georgia?
That’s of course, those are the questions for you, because what Russia is testing now with us, is a much less costly form of intervention, one that uses its proxies in the country, one that uses our own common democratic instruments – elections, and through elections, imposes its rule and its strengths, and if we are honest, Europe so far has not fully lived to the moment. Europe has so far met the challenge halfway; the last Foreign Affairs Council was a first step, but much more can and should be done. I won’t get into specifics, because that’s your free decisions, but you all know where Georgians have been fighting day and night; Europe has been slow to wake up, and slow to react; while European flags are being banned in Tbilisi, Georgians are still waiting for biting measures to come from Brussels and Washington, and I hope we won’t have to wait for a deeper crisis to occur, for Europe to act.
And how can Europe act? First of all – political support; we need, and I thank the President for reminding that constant political attention from the highest levels, because Georgians first and foremost need to know that they are not alone, that we have your back; that is what European Parliament, parliamentarians did coming to Tbilisi, this was Emanuel Macron’s strong message – but we need more; we need more visits to Georgia, but visits that do respect the principle of not business as usual, because as you know, and you have experimented that with Russia – those visits can be very well manipulated because in propaganda they are the best undoubtedly, so those visits need to be exactly controlled, I would say, in terms of public relations, so that they do not serve a different end; we need to fight lies and disinformation, we have been saying that for months now, if not more; can Europe accept to be called “the party of war”? Can Europe accept to see some of its ambassadors insulted in the country? Can Europe accept and let the Georgian government claim that it is moving toward Europe? Can Europeans accept for the Georgian Prime Minister to outright lie about Italy, Spain, and Romania’s position?
The second direction in which Europe can act is justice, and that is what Europe stands for. We need to free, rapidly, the hundreds that are in prison, and some of them under sentences that go up to 9 years; there should be very close monitoring, and I know that some European Ambassadors have assisted yesterday at a trial and they were quite impressed, so I think that many more of these visits to the courts would be very important, to see how they work and certainly freeing those in prison, and perpetrators of acts that have been qualified as torture – brought to justice. New elections is also the way Europe can support us; we need for Europe to support this call, as the only peaceful way forward; there is no other way, no changes in legislation, no face saving arrangements; we know that these authorities again, very Russian model, can do one step forward, and two step back, or two step back, one step forward – I don’t remember what was Lenin’s formula, but they have been practicing that quite successfully, so we have to be very clear and very principled as will be the Georgian population; we either go to elections, or we go somewhere that we do not know, but that certainly will be a crisis that we will – you will have to deal, in much dire conditions.
You have to use your leverage and be a geopolitical Europe. Europe is Georgia’s biggest donor, Georgia’s biggest market, home to Georgia’s biggest diaspora; Europe needs to find the leverage to act. If Europe cannot exert leverage on a country of 3.7 million how can it expect to compete with the giants of the 21st century? Europe has personal clout, it is also the preferred destination for Georgia’s corrupt elite and leadership; they import post Soviet Russia governance in Georgia but are happy to save and spend their money in Europe, and they want the Russian corrupt rule for Georgians, but Europe for themselves.
So there are many ways in which you can stand by the Georgians, because Georgia will win this fight, it will defend its freedom, democracy and European future, and in certain ways, while not wanting at all to compare to the Ukrainian bravery and tragedy, but Ukraine is fighting for freedom, democracy, and European future, and your future, and I’m sure that they will win and they have to be supported to the end, and on the other side, we are at a testing ground, fighting of course not militarily but we’re fighting with bare hands in a different manner, something that also has a very dear clear bearing on all of us as future.
The question I came here to ask is simple – will you speed up the transition or will you let it prolong throughout the winter? Georgians will not waver, but expect Europe to step up, so we can defend Europe and its values together.
Thank you very much, thank you.”
