Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili reacted to the visit by the EU countries’ key parliamentarians by denouncing the visit, saying he refused to meet with them and lashing out at “some members of the delegation” for what he called “publicly campaigning against Georgia’s ruling party and in support of the opposition,”
civil.ge reports.
A delegation of senior lawmakers from EU member countries arrived in Tbilisi on November 11, following the October 26 controversial Parliamentary elections, which many local observers said were marred by numerous systemic violations and irregularities.
Papuashvili wrote on his X (Twitter) page that the delegation “requested a series of meetings with Chairman and committee chairs of the Georgian Parliament”, however he was “really surprised” to find out that the delegation intended to meet “the entire political and parliamentary leadership of Georgia despite their track-record of personal hostilities to Georgian Government and society.“
He claimed that “the whole idea of the visit is political partisanship” and accused “some of the delegation members” of “continuously and purposefully violated Georgian legislation by publicly campaigning against Georgia’s governing party and in support of the opposition,” which he said is prohibited by Georgian Constitution and electoral legislation as “interference in the elections.”
He further recalled the instance when several EU member states foreign ministers met with the anti-Foreign Agents’ law rally participants in spring of this year, saying they “challenged the very essence of rules-based international order, which they seem to cherish only rhetorically.”
He slammed “some members” of the delegation without naming anybody in particular, for “spreading disinformation narratives against the Georgian people”, citing the “notorious case of conditions of Mikheil Saakashvili’s imprisonment” and claimed that this “encouraged the radical part of the opposition to deepen political polarization, “damaged the image of Georgia abroad” and is “impairing our populations’ trust in the goodwill of our Western partners.”
