On October 8, the European Parliament held debates on “The Democratic Backsliding and Threats to Political Pluralism in Georgia.” MEPs discussed the upcoming elections in Georgia, the ruling party’s anti-democratic actions and anti-EU rhetoric, and the need to adopt a resolution in support of Georgian democracy before the elections. The vote on this resolution is expected on 9 October.
Georgia is set to lose 121.3 million euros in EU aid due to democratic backsliding, according to the European Commission’s bilateral financial allocations for partner countries for 2022-2024. The European Commission’s announcement reads that these funds are being withheld or reallocated from Georgia “in reaction to backsliding on democratic standards, in particular following the adoption of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence [Foreign Agents’ Law], targeting Georgian civil society and media.”
Transparency International – Georgia, a local corruption watchdog, and key election observer slammed the Interior Ministry’s decision to empower U.S.-sanctioned official Zviad Karazishvili, also known as “Khareba,” to oversee the forming of “territorial groups” tasked with “detecting and preventing violations during the pre-election period and on election day.” TI-Georgia calls on the Interior Ministry “to immediately revise his Ordinance and to repeal the Special Task Department Director’s involvement in the “territorial task forces.”
On 8 October, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) sold USD 48.5 million in an attempt to support the national currency, the lari (GEL).According to NBG, a recent surge in demand for foreign currency, largely triggered by scheduled dividend payments, has put additional pressure on the exchange rate of the lari and the bank opted to intervene in the currency market. “The macroeconomic fundamentals remain robust, characterized by strong economic growth over the past three years and inflation rates below the 3% target since 2023,” concluded the NBG.