“The EU Ambassador must clarify what he implies when he threatens the country and its people with a return to the past,” said MP Davit Matikashvili, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Procedural Issues.

Matikashvili accused Ambassador Pawel Herczyński of making a statement that had crossed “every conceivable line” and bore “no relation whatsoever to diplomacy.”

“He himself said it: civil war, poverty, destitution, unless specific instructions from Brussels are carried out. That was a statement that overstepped every boundary, one entirely unbefitting of a diplomat, and one that amounts, in plain terms, to a threat directed at the Georgian people. Once again, it reveals and lays bare the fact that the Georgian people’s choice to have a national government of their own is unacceptable to certain forces, including those whom Herczyński represents. This diplomat has made a habit of pressure, of threats, of trampling the Vienna Convention underfoot. When a threat is voiced so pointedly and so publicly against an entire society, it demands an answer. Accordingly, Ambassador Herczyński ought to come forward and explain himself, both to the head of the Foreign Ministry and to the whole of Georgian society, which is entirely right to be outraged by what was said,” Matikashvili declared.

For context: several Georgian media outlets circulated remarks made by EU Ambassador Pawel Herczyński at an event held in Brussels at the European External Action Service, in which he stated: “Georgia stands at a crossroads. Georgia’s future has not yet been written, but what is decided in the coming weeks and months will determine whether Georgia belongs to the family of European nations founded on democracy, the rule of law and human rights, or whether, regrettably, it returns to its dark past.” Herczyński also warned: “We must not allow Georgia, and the wonderful, warm, hospitable Georgian people, to return to a dark era of violence, civil war, poverty, hardship and corruption.”