Parliament official stresses ruling party’s “forced” decision to initiate impeachment against President

Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights, on Tuesday said the ruling team was “forced” to initiate the impeachment procedure against the Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili over her alleged violation of the constitution through her departure on an official visit abroad without the Government’s authorisation.

In his remarks over the matter, Sarjveladze said it was not “pleasant for anyone” to initiate the impeachment procedure.

All this requires a response through legal mechanisms, and the initiation of impeachment is precisely that. After that, there will be a decision by the Constitutional Court, and depending on what this decision will be, the procedure will continue”, Sarjveladze said.

Aleko Elisashvili, the leader of the Citizens opposition party who met Zourabichvili on Tuesday, said the President did not rule out the possibility of the ruling Georgian Dream party gathering enough votes in the Parliament for a successful impeachment.

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Monday said the impeachment procedure was the “only way” to respond to "violations of specific articles of the constitution".

Zourabichvili’s visits last week were launched after the Government Administration last week said the Government had rejected requests by Zourabichvili’s office for approval of her official visits to Germany, Ukraine, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Israel.

Departing for the trips anyway, the President on Thursday said the series of visits to European cities were aimed at fulfilling her “highest and foremost” obligation as President of promoting the country's European integration.