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 anti-democratic actions and anti-EU rhetoric of the ruling party and the need to adopt a resolution in support of Georgian democracy before the elections. The vote on this resolution will take place tomorrow.
The debates were opened by the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová. She stated: “On the 26 of October over 3 million Georgian will cast their vote to elect a new Parliament. This Parliamentary election are pivotal for Georgia’s EU path. They will also be a critical test for Georgia’s democracy. Last December when Georgia was granted EU candidate status, we hoped this would be a strong incentive for the government to undertake significant reforms achieve opening EU accession negotiations. Instead the recent months the government authorities have proposed laws that have moved the country away from this goal. Despite massive protests the foreign influence law, which stifles civil society and media organizations was reintroduced and adopted. Other proposals that discriminate against and stigmatize the LGBTQI community and weaken the independence of state institutions have also been put forward. At the same time, the anti-EU rhetoric has grown louder.”
Vice President Jourová also thanked the European Parliament for voicing its concerns about Georgia and the government’s “unprecedented anti-democratic actions”, and categorically underlined that the widespread disinformation about the EU’s attempt to open a “second front” in Georgia or Georgia’s Ukrainization is “unacceptable” and only harms EU-Georgian relations. She said that GD’s promise to ban opposition parties contradicts Georgia’s goal of EU integration and expressed hope that Georgians would return to the EU path, promising that the EU would support this process.
MEP Rasa Juknevičienė emphasized in her address that “the European Parliament sends a clear message to Bidzina Ivanishvili and his collaborators in the party: membership of the EU is incompatible with their politics. You can’t be pro-European and pro-Kremlin at the same time.” The same messages were shared by the opposers of the GD politics. Several MEPs pointed out that Georgia can’t be both pro-EU and pro-Kremlin/Putinist.
She, along with MEPs Petras Auštrevičius, Raphaël Glucksmann and others called on the Georgian government to release the former President Mikheil Saakashvili from prison, and expressed support for Georgia’s EU integration and democratic development.
Several MEPs, including Sven Mikser and Markéta Gregorová stressed that the candidate status granted to Georgia by the EU can be withdrawn, with other options such as stopping visa liberalization and individual sanctions on the table if Georgia continues on its current path.
Although the general theme of the debates was criticism of Georgian Dream’s policies, there were a number of MEPs who defended the ruling party. French MEP Thierry Mariani accused NGOs of trying to “destabilize democracy” in Georgia, saying that millions have been spent on NGOs for years, but “this form of interference doesn’t seem to bother anyone” in the EU, which in his opinion means that the EU applies double standards. He said that Georgians don’t want orders from Moscow or advice from Brussels.
Slovakian MEP Milan Mazurek congratulated Georgia for passing the anti-LGBTQ propaganda law, saying that Georgia was protecting its children from “rainbow nonsense” and that the EU must let democratic states make their own decisions. Similar message was voiced by German MEP Hans Neuhoff as well. Meanwhile, Spanish MEP Nacho Sánchez Amor questioned the timing of the resolution, asking if its adoption would interfere in the electoral process.
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