The President of Georgia grossly violated the Constitution and started a series of visits to foreign countries without the government’s consent – Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of Georgian Dream, claimed at a briefing held at the party’s office after the end of the political council session. “According to the constitution, only the government is authorized to implement both the domestic and foreign policy of the country.
Kobakhidze alleged that it is “obvious” that any European visit of the President of Georgia will be counterproductive in terms of Georgia’s success in receiving candidate status and directly opposes the efforts of the Georgian government to receive said status.
“Today, the meeting of the political council of the party was held, where, in addition to other issues, we discussed the gross violation of the Constitution of Georgia by the President of Georgia who started a series of visits to foreign countries without the consent of the government. According to the Constitution of Georgia, only the government is authorized to implement both domestic and foreign policy of the country.
“According to Article 52, Clause 1, Sub-Clause “A” of the Constitution of Georgia, the President of Georgia shall exercise representative powers in foreign relations only with the approval of the government. As such, the text of the Constitution does not leave even minimal space for its non-uniform interpretation. It is known to the public that the President of Georgia has a radically different attitude from the government towards the processes related to Georgia’s EU membership candidate status. In particular, her position is that Georgia did not deserve the candidate status last year.
“Moreover, according to her, the parliament and the government are only formally fulfilling the requirements of the European Union, which means that, in her opinion, Georgia does not deserve the status of a candidate even now.
“Given such an attitude, it is obvious that any European visit of the President of Georgia is counterproductive from the point of view of Georgia chances to receive the candidate status and directly opposes the efforts of the Georgian government to receive the said status. Therefore, the refusal of the Georgian government regarding the European tour planned by the President was justified both from the legal and political point of view”, said Irakli Kobakhidze.
He mentioned that Salome Zurabishvili is trying to play “a kind of invincible game.”
“On the one hand, she knows that from today’s point of view, the prospect of granting Georgia candidate status has increased, and she wants to earn points from such a possible development of events. On the other hand, she will try, as much as possible, to prevent Georgia from receiving the candidate status.
“The Constitution of Georgia provides for the only effective legal mechanism for responding to its violation – this is impeachment. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we were repeatedly pointing out that despite the gross violation of the Constitution, impeachment was impossible in the given political situation. The support of 100 MPs is required for the implementation of impeachment and, accordingly, without the votes of the radical opposition, it has no prospect of execution. Despite this, at the meeting of the political council of the party, we made a decision to initiate the impeachment procedure against the President of Georgia. First of all, this is our responsibility before the Constitution of Georgia. Turning a blind eye to gross violations of the Constitution undermines the rule of law of a legal state and democratic constitutional system. In addition, the impeachment procedure will once again expose the common agenda of the radical opposition and Salome Zurabishvili, which is directed against the state interests of Georgia, including Georgia’s candidate status.
“In order to initiate the impeachment procedure, the signatures of the members of the parliamentary majority will be collected in the next few days, and the relevant constitutional submission will be filed with the Constitutional Court of Georgia,” Kobakhidze said.
Georgian Dream is starting an impeachment procedure against Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili. Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze made the corresponding statement at the press conference this morning.
