The decision to start the impeachment procedure was made after the President’s violation of the Constitution of Georgia gained a systemic character. We no longer consider Salome Zurabishvili worthy of the presidency, – the chairman of Georgian Dream Irakli Kobakhidze stated in the Constitutional Court, where the impeachment submission of the President is being considered.
In response to the judge’s question, Kobakhidze explained the motivation behind Georgian Dream starting the impeachment procedure.
He claimed that although the ruling team knows that it does not have the relevant resources in Parliament, the starting point is that “the President, as a rule, should resign”.
“Initiating the impeachment procedure is a political decision. In 2022, we also made a political statement that the President of Georgia had violated the Constitution of Georgia. She applied to the government in April 2022, if I’m not mistaken, to get approval for the visits, she was refuse, and yet still made the corresponding visits. We did not suggest impeachment then, due to the fact that at some point she changed this practice and did not violate it for a certain period of time. She underwent consultations and later consent was given for certain visits. However, the political decision was made only after the President’s violation of the Constitution of Georgia gained a systemic character. When you initiate impeachment, from our point of view, it means that we no longer consider Salome Zurabishvili worthy of the presidency.
“We said from the beginning that we do not expect 100 votes. We have a reasonable assumption that Ms. Salome Zurabishvili was violating the Georgian Constitution in the hope of gaining support from the opposition, but the ultimate goal and starting point of impeachment is that the President, as a rule, should resign. This will be our goal, and if the Constitutional Court presents a positive conclusion to the Parliament regarding the violation of the Constitution, all relevant deputies will support the impeachment of the President. This is our political intention,” said Irakli Kobakhidze.
