“The regime intends to conflate recognition of its own legitimacy with recognition of the constitutional order. Georgian Dream itself stepped outside the bounds of the constitution more than two years ago. It is an illegitimate regime,” said Giorgi Sioridze, a member of Lelo–Strong Georgia party, commenting on the planned amendments to the Criminal Code.

According to Sioridze, every political party, politician, and citizen has the constitutional right to express a view on the legitimacy, or otherwise, of any given political force.

“This has been recognised, including on multiple occasions, by the Strasbourg court. But the fact of the matter is that the regime has a legitimacy problem. International organisations had previously stated that the distinction between the ruling party and the state had become blurred. Georgian Dream denied this. Now it is attempting to enshrine that conflation in law and to bring criminal charges against those who refuse to accept it,” Giorgi Sioridze declared.

Under the proposed legislation, a new article would be added to the Criminal Code on extremism against the constitutional order. According to the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, MP Archil Gorduladze, this would cover: incitement to the mass violation of Georgian legislation; incitement to mass disobedience towards organs of government, including systematic public calls for the creation of alternative organs of power in place of Georgia’s state institutions; and other acts directed at entrenching the perception that constitutional organs are illegitimate, where such acts damage or create a genuine threat of damage to Georgia’s interests.

Archil Gorduladze maintains that a clear line will be drawn between freedom of speech and expression on the one hand, and criminal conduct on the other. In Gorduladze’s explanation, the key determining factor will be whether individuals are systematically and repeatedly making public calls for citizens to engage in mass disobedience towards organs of government, calling for the creation of alternative institutions, and systematically presenting themselves in public as representatives of some rival authority, and whether all of this, taken together, is directed at entrenching the perception that the constitutional order or constitutional organs are illegitimate, and whether it damages or poses a genuine threat of damage to Georgia’s interests.

Georgian Dream has also indicated that the commission of a criminal offence motivated by non-recognition of Georgia’s constitutional order or its constitutional organs will be treated as an aggravating circumstance when sentencing is determined.