“Instead of the Swedish Embassy explaining to us whether the Swedish Prime Minister’s position on same-sex marriage extends to Georgia as well, it’s busy funding extremist NGOs and hiding from the Georgian people’s questions,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili declared.

Papuashvili commented on Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s statement, where he noted: “Today, same-sex couples cannot enter into marriage or registered partnership in Ukraine. Full legal protection for all minorities’ rights, including the LGBTQI community, is for us an important part of Ukraine’s EU rapprochement, and something we support. As a strong supporter of Ukraine, Sweden will carefully monitor that this is fulfilled.”

“We see that the Swedish Ambassador and Embassy are not fulfilling their function. The ambassador’s job is to explain and present their own government’s position. We saw the Swedish Prime Minister’s position; he clearly stated that for Ukraine’s progress on the EU membership path, it’s important that Ukraine legalise LGBT marriage. He said this directly, clearly, and unambiguously.

There’s a simple question for the Swedish Embassy: to clarify their government’s position, whether the Prime Minister misstated, or this reflects the official position of the Swedish government regarding the decision-making process for candidate countries, and whether this stance also applies to Georgia.

The Swedish Ambassador should explain this; this is precisely the ambassador’s job. Instead, the Swedish Embassy is busy taking photos at trials of people accused of violence, showing off, and funding extremist NGOs. In reality, this undermines the very idea of diplomatic missions and representation. Instead of explaining Sweden’s position to us, the Embassy hides, evades the Georgian people’s questions, while openly supporting extremists in broad daylight,” Shalva Papuashvili declared.