Georgian Dream will leave the Party of European Socialists, Chairman of the party Irakli Kobakhidze announced at the briefing after the session of the political council.
He noted the ruling party had been a member of the PES since 2015.
“A written statement about the decision will be sent to the Party of European Socialists immediately,” he added.
“The ideological transformation of the Party of European Socialists is unacceptable and incompatible with the values of the party and the Georgian people,” Kobakhidze said.
The party of European Socialists planned to review the status of the observer member of Georgian Dream in June. However, the “Georgian Dream” helped the European socialists make a decision and left the party itself.
According to Kobakhidze, cooperation with the European Socialist Party was counterproductive for them.
Party of European Socialists announced at the end of April that it would review the partnership with the ruling party. The statement of the partners of “Georgian Dream” was published after the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili participated in the International Conference of Conservatives (CPAC) held in Hungary. His words there caused concern among the “Dream” partners. In his approximately 20-minute speech at the conference on May 4, the Prime Minister of Georgia spoke about various issues and made a number of homophobic statements. “Preservation of traditional values” and “inadmissibility of violence by the minority against the majority” were the main emphases of his speech.
However, according to the statement of the European Socialist Party, not only Garibashvili’s statements, but also the actions of Georgian Dream have caused them deep concern. As is clear from their statement, the issue regarding the status of the Georgian Dream was raised by the president of PES in March, when the Georgian Dream thought to adopt a “Russian Law”.
