Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Saturday said “the only right and European way out” for the country’s President Salome Zourabichvili “is to admit the violation of the constitution and vow that it will not happen again”.
Papuashvili told the Public Broadcaster that the President’s alleged violation of the constitution through her departure on an official visit abroad without the Government’s authorisation was not an “unintentional step” but a “deliberate and gross” violation of the constitution.
The President herself confirmed that she violated the constitution and said she used her own funds to make the visits, Papuashvili stressed, adding “if the constitution is violated, are we a state or not, do we respect the rules that the people have established in the constitution, when we talk about membership of the European family, how should we be accepted [...] if we don’t respect even our basic law”.
If we don’t respect our constitution, others will think that it [constitution] is just a paper”, he emphasised.
If the Constitutional Court of Georgia determines the violation of the constitution, it will be “a [political] verdict against the President”, he noted, stressing after that the impeachment process would “not be so important”.