Ruling party head: Zourabichvili "only nominal” President after impeachment motion

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said for the party Salome Zourabichvili "only nominally” remained the President of the country after the GD-initiated impeachment vote at the Parliament earlier this month following her foreign visits without Government authorisation. 

While the motion failed to gain enough votes from lawmakers, Kobakhidze alleged Zourabichvili was using her visits to foreign capitals "to campaign in Europe against the country being granted the European Union membership candidate status”.

When you go to Europe, you say to your counterparts that the Georgian Government does not want European integration, this means lobbying against the [EU candidate] status. How can such a person be sent to Europe when you want to receive the membership candidate status?” Kobakhidze said. 

“We have an optimistic expectation that we will be granted the candidate status in December. We used to say that it [the chance] was 50-50, although these chances have been qualitatively improved, [and] Zourabichvili will not be able to prevent Georgia from receiving the candidate status”, the ruling party official noted. 

Georgian Dream on October 18 fell short of votes for Zourabichvili’s impeachment in the Parliament after 86 MPs voted for her dismissal instead of the mandatory 100.

The party initiated the vote after the Constitutional Court ruled the President had violated the Constitution with the unauthorised visits.