In a press briefing, parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili says that the charges against the president related to foreign visits that were not approved by the government. These are the same accusations that were made in the previous round of impeachment last year.
However, the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies lack sufficient votes in parliament to impeach Zourabichvili. Papuashvili said he hoped the measure would be passed after a new parliament is elected.
Zourabichvili was elected in 2018 with the support of Georgian Dream. In recent weeks, she has taken on the role of mediator between Georgia’s divided opposition parties, with the aim of removing Georgian Dream at the election.
Zourabichvili, who is a Paris-born former French diplomat with Georgian ancestry, last week met the presidents of France, Germany and Poland as well as senior EU officials during a trip to Europe.
The EU said last week it had suspended all high-level contacts with the Georgian government because of its anti-Western and anti-European narratives.
Although Georgia has been largely parochial since independence from Moscow in 1991, foreign and domestic critics have accused Georgian Dream of trying to sabotage the country’s long-held goals of EU and NATO membership and turning against Russia.
The party itself claims that they want Georgia to join the EU and NATO, while at the same time they want to avoid coming into conflict with Russia.
According to opinion polls, Georgian Dream remains the country’s most popular single party, although it has lost ground since 2020, when it won almost 50 percent of the vote and a narrow parliamentary majority.
#Georgias #government #impeach #president
2024-10-07 21:05:10
