Parliament Speaker: assessing intention to initiate legal process against UNM as “undemocratic” goes against democratic principles
The Parliament Speaker responded to this statement, calling an intention “to ban” all opposition parties “simply a disinformation”. Photo: Parliament of Georgia
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Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said that “assessing the intention to initiate a legal process” against the United National Movement by some representatives of the European Union as an undemocratic step, contradicted the principles of both a “legal state” and “democracy.”
Papuashvili noted that “while the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg established in the Ochigava v Georgia [case of February 2023] that a system of systemic violence and torture was built in penitentiary facilities during the UNM government, the support for the party that created this regime” diminished the criminal nature of the governance based on violence and demonstrated “disrespect towards the victims of the [imprisoned former President Mikheil] Saakashvili regime”.
“Respect for the Georgian people, first of all, means respect for the legal proceedings in Georgia, the highest standard of which has been repeatedly confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights”, he pointed out in his social media post.
His comments came in the wake of a statement by Peter Stano, the EU Spokesperson for External Affairs, who had stressed on Tuesday in an interview with Politico that “the Georgian government’s plans to outlaw opposition parties if it wins October’s parliamentary election would destroy what’s left of the country’s democracy and force a tough response from the West”, and that “Brussels is concerned by the proposed ban of all opposition parties put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream government”.
The Parliament Speaker responded to this statement, calling an intention “to ban” all opposition parties “simply a disinformation”.
Last week, the Political Council of the ruling GD party said it would initiate a legal process that would result in the opposition UNM party and all its “satellite or successor” parties being declared unconstitutional “once a constitutional majority is secured” in the October parliamentary elections.