Ruling party Sec Gen claims Venice Commission’s opinion on controversial law “saturated with political messages”

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday claimed the opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the Georgian law on transparency of foreign influence “confirmed” there were “no legal or other arguments against the law”.

Kaladze’s comments came after the Commission on Tuesday “strongly” recommended the Georgian Government to repeal the controversial law.

The party official said the Commission had presented “an opinion saturated with political messages”.

Unfortunately, the Venice Commission, instead of a legal reasoning, presented us a politically biased assessment that has distorted the facts and told us that the law should be repealed, although it did not consider it necessary to provide a legal substantiation or a substantive argument”, he said.

“The Venice Commission comes out with a recommendation that Georgia should not demand transparency of civil organisations and media - it turns out that this is all an undemocratic action. All this is incredible. Georgian citizens expected reasoned, professional judgement and specific arguments from the Venice Commission, but instead we received political messages”, he concluded.

Salome Kurasbediani, a member of the parliamentary majority from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday claimed the opinion of the Commission had “once again confirmed” that there were “no legal arguments” against the law.