MP Kadagishvili: EU spokesperson’s comments on party ban are “gross interference”, not concern for justice

“It is time everyone understood that Georgia is a state with a Constitution, laws and a justice system. What the European Commission’s spokesperson has said, now and in the past, is gross interference in the country’s internal affairs, not concern for justice,” said MP Irakli Kadagishvili, chair of Parliament’s Self-Government Committee.

Kadagishvili noted that a distinct, internationally recognised body is already providing judicial oversight, pointing out that national court decisions remain subject to appeal before the European Court of Human Rights.

“The Strasbourg court’s verdict then confirms whether the national courts’ decision was right or wrong. We remember how, in every high-profile case, the EU and representatives of various European countries used political pressure on both the justice system and the state. Yet, every time these high-profile cases reached Strasbourg, the ECHR upheld the Georgian judiciary’s decisions as entirely lawful and correct. What was confirmed was not a commitment to the rule of law, but an intent to exert political influence over it. We are now facing the same situation. Does Georgia’s Constitution allow a political party to be banned through proceedings at the Constitutional Court? It does, and this is an international norm. Such a norm exists in every country. So we have a legitimate right to use it.

Through such interference, the EU has brought the current opposition to this dire state. Their idée fixe of somehow bringing their preferred political force to power has driven this opposition to bankruptcy. It is precisely this interference and these unlawful actions that have led to the suspension of political dialogue with Georgia. We remember well what they did: they declared the elections illegitimate, led the opposition onto the streets and left them there. That is what they did, and their ‘concern’ has brought the democratic process to this point. The European Commission spokesperson’s support for the 4 October coup is the greatest crime against the democratic process,” Kadagishvili said.

European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said at a briefing that “the EU is closely following the process of banning opposition parties in Georgia”.