Georgia’s PM: President should have stayed in country during “difficult processes in region”
Garibashvili pointed out the obligation of “every citizen of Georgia, and above all, high-ranking political officials”, to respect and protect the Constitution, adding the President was “mistaken” and expressing “hope” that “very soon everything will be clear and questions [on the matter] will also be removed”. Photo: Government Administration
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The Government believes the President of Georgia should have stayed in the country during the “difficult processes” in the region, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told reporters on Tuesday in comments on Salome Zourabichvili’s international visits since the breakout of hostilities in Ukraine last month.
“When such difficult processes are taking place in the region, [and] there is a large-scale war in Ukraine, every member of the Government and I believe that the President of Georgia should [act as] the Commander-in-Chief and stay in the country,” Garibashvili said following a meeting of the Political Council of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party on Tuesday.
The statement follows Monday’s address by President Zourabichvili to the Parliament, in which she had raised the question of “restrictions imposed on the President’s international activities” by the Government of Georgia.
The Government head said the President was “obliged to agree” on the issue with the Government, and explained the main arguments and motivations of the Government decision to refuse Zourabichvili the status of formal visits to European states since the outbreak of the armed conflict.
The Constitution of Georgia clarifies that the Government decides on whether to consent to the President’s planning and conducting of any foreign visit, Garibashvili said. The PM added the Constitution of Georgia stipulated the foreign policy as being determined by the Parliament and implemented by the Government.
Garibashvili pointed out the obligation of “every citizen of Georgia, and above all, high-ranking political officials”, to respect and protect the Constitution, adding the President was “mistaken” and expressing “hope” that “very soon everything will be clear and questions [on the matter] will also be removed”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the ruling Georgian Dream party accused President Salome Zourabichvili of having violated the Constitution with her visits to a number of European countries, held without prior consultations with the Government of Georgia on the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
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Ensuring constitutional order represents the “supreme public interest,” with individual initiatives in the matter being “simply inadmissible”, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Tuesday in comments on a controversy around President Salome Zourabichvili’s recent visits to Europe.
The Government of Georgia has been “forced” to ask the country’s Constitutional Court to confirm whether the President of Georgia violated the Constitution in her international visits, the Political Council of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party said on Tuesday.
Georgia has stood and still stands with Ukraine and Ukrainians amid the ongoing war in the country, President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili said on Monday in her annual report to the Georgian Parliament.
The Georgian President refused to sign nominations for five ambassadors by the Government and rejected recall of one between June and July in 2021 and this year, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said in response to the Presidential Administration’s claim that Salome Zourabichvili had signed the appointments for “all nominated candidates” for diplomatic missions and representations at international organisations.
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