President to MPs: European state “can only be based on” democratic principles”

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Tuesday told the country’s Parliament a European state could “not be based on anything other than democratic principles”, with protected rights for citizens.

In comments during her annual report to the lawmaking body, Zourabichvili said “Europe means prosperity”, but added “wealth in itself is nothing” unless it implied “universal prosperity”.

She stressed prosperity was “for everyone and not a monopoly for a privileged few”.

A European state cannot be based on anything other than democratic principles, according to which citizens have a number of protected rights”, she told MPs.

The President also noted that Georgia had “secured its future place in the European family” in 2023, in reference to the European Union membership candidate status granted to it by the European Council in December.

The task for 2024 is clear. Our future is in our hands, which requires the greatest responsibility from us. We are given a truly unique chance not only to formally join the European space, but also to establish Europeanness in us, to transform the post-Soviet country into a living, successful, strong, European and democratic state”, Zourabichvili noted. 

She added that now it was time to make the past a thing of the past and pave the way for a new Georgia, and further pointed out that “this is our European way, therefore, the national way”.