The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, called the resolution adopted by the European Parliament unfair and ineffective.
On Wednesday, at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, deputies dissatisfied with Tbilisi’s politics approved the resolution “On the decline of democracy and threats to political pluralism in Georgia.” 495 deputies voted in favor, 73 against and 86 abstained. The resolution calls on the EU and its Member States to hold accountable and impose personal sanctions against all those responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, including (the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party) Bidzina Ivanishviliand also freeze all EU funding for this country.
“The injustice of this resolution is completely obvious. Again there is talk of punishing the Georgian Dream, again there is talk of protecting the National Movement (the opposition party of the former president Mikhail Saakashvili)… Of course, an unfair document has no value for us. “It has the same price as the three previous resolutions and will be as ineffective as the previous three.” – said Kobakhidze.
The Prime Minister is confident that the reason for the approval of such documents is that certain forces cannot accept the fact that Georgia has not opened a “second front” against Russia.
Georgian authorities previously adopted two laws criticized in the EU: “On family values and the protection of minors,” known as the law prohibiting LGBT propaganda.* (the movement is recognized as extremist and is banned in the Russian Federation), and “On the transparency of foreign influence”, known as the law on foreign agents.
The EU criticized these laws and demanded that Tbilisi repeal them, threatening to suspend the EU accession process, suspend financial support and even stop visa liberalization for citizens of this country.
*Extremist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.
