Members of the European Parliament have issued a joint statement on the recent local elections in Georgia, warning of deepening authoritarian tendencies in the country.
The statement stressed that the October 4, 2025, elections were held “in a restricted environment, amid months of repression by self-appointed officials of Georgian Dream against civil society, independent media, and the political opposition.”
MEPs claim that the Georgian authorities “effectively prevented the presence of credible election observers” by delaying the invitation to the OSCE/ODIHR and imposing restrictions on domestic groups, which hampered their ability to monitor the vote.
The lawmakers also voiced concern over violent clashes that erupted after the elections, urging all political actors to remain calm.
“We strongly denounce Georgian Dream’s declared intention to ban opposition parties, which would mark a new culmination of Georgia’s slide towards an authoritarian regime,” the statement read. “We reiterate our call on the EU and its Member States to take immediate action and impose personal sanctions against key Georgian Dream leaders and officials responsible for democratic backsliding, electoral fraud, human rights violations, and the persecution of opponents and activists — in particular Bidzina Ivanishvili and Irakli Kobakhidze.”
The joint declaration was signed by David McAllister, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Mounir Satouri, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights; Sergey Lagodinsky, Chair of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly; Nils Ušakovs, Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the South Caucasus; and Rasa Juknevičienė, the European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Georgia.
