“No mechanism” to revise visa liberalisation for Georgia - ruling party Sec-Gen criticises EP’s “shameful resolution”

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said there was “no mechanism” to revise the visa liberalisation within the European Union for Georgia and noted its initiation needed “consensus” of all 27 member states, but “fortunately healthy political forces still remain in the European bureaucracy, which will not take such a shameful step”.

At the press briefing at the GD office, Kaladze criticised the European Parliament’s resolution against the transparency bill, adopted earlier today, which calls for the “prompt assessment of the impact of Georgia’s planned ‘foreign agent’ law” on the country’s continuous fulfilment of the visa liberalisation benchmarks.

The resolution, passed with 425 votes in favour and 30 against, “strongly condemns” the re-introduction of the controversial draft law on transparency of foreign influence and stresses that EU accession negotiations should not be opened “as long as this law is part of Georgia’s legal order”.

This absurd entry [on the revision of visa-free travel regime for Georgia] was made for only one purpose to somehow cause agitation among the country’s citizens, confuse the public and intensify the protest”, Kaladze stressed and urged the public “not to be deceived [by these lies]”.

He pointed out that “such disgraceful resolutions” were an “insult” to the European institutions and damaged their reputation, adding “unfortunately”, lobbying and vicious relations were widespread in the European structures.

By calling on Georgia to withdraw the bill on transparency, the MEPs want ‘black money’ to flow into the country secretly, which will then be used for destructive actions against Georgia, Kaladze alleged, stressing it was incomprehensible as the EU planned to adopt “much tougher law” on foreign influence.

Kaladze emphasised that another reason why this resolution was “shameful” was that it called for the release of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili - “a criminal who created a vicious system of torture, murder, business racketeering, oppression and rape in Georgia”.

It turns out that we should free Saakashvili, who deliberately cut off 20 percent of Georgia's territories and plunged the country into the mire of poverty. At the same time, the authors of the shameful resolution demanded the sanctioning of Bidzina Ivanishvili [the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former PM] who saved this country from destruction, [...] preserved the culture and spirituality of our country with his unprecedented charity and laid the foundation for such a democracy in Georgia, where human rights and freedoms are protected at the highest level”, he added.

The ruling party official denounced the resolution, which also urges the GD majority to “withdraw its proposed constitutional legislation curtailing LGBTIQ rights, which represent an attack not only on the LGBTIQ community but also on freedom of speech and a free civil society”, by saying this resolution openly supported the “propaganda of non-traditional way of life”, “posing a direct threat to our future generations”.

He stressed everyone’s rights were protected in Georgia, regardless of their religion, gender and orientation, but noted that “propaganda is categorically unacceptable”.