Speaker urges EU Embassy to delete Flag Day congratulation video: Such ‘congratulation’ insults Georgian flag

“Yesterday, on the occasion of Georgian National Flag Day, we saw the EU Embassy ‘congratulating’ the Georgian people with indecent footage that insulted the Georgian flag. To use the words of the EU Ambassador himself, this is outrageous, shameful and disgusting,” the Georgian Parliament Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, told journalists.

Papuashvili responded to questions about a video clip released by the EU Delegation that included footage from a rally.

“If the EU Embassy truly wanted to congratulate us, perhaps it should finally take an example from the new U.S. administration and see how the U.S. Embassy congratulated Georgia on its National Flag Day yesterday. What we see today in the political space shows how far the EU and the new U.S. administration are from one another in terms of values. We witnessed this difference clearly at the level of embassies as well. This contrast vividly demonstrates the civilizational abyss to which the Brussels bureaucracy is leading the European Union,” he said.

According to Papuashvili, the video also constituted an act of justifying, romanticizing and indirectly supporting violence.

“On Georgia’s National Flag Day, we saw indecent and insulting footage of the Georgian flag from the EU Embassy’s so-called ‘congratulation.’ This indecent is absolutely unacceptable. Using the EU Ambassador’s own words, what appeared on the EU Embassy’s social media page was outrageous, shameful and disgusting. This must stop,” Papuashvili said.

He added that the video should be removed entirely, stressing that such content insults not only the Georgian flag and people, but also the very idea of Europe.

“This was also a political message. Under these circumstances, how can they lecture us about who inspired, financed or directed hatred and violence? My advice is clear: remove this insulting ‘congratulation’ of the Georgian flag and people, which incites violence, from your own platform,” Papuashvili concluded.