President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili addressed the joint meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the European Affairs Committee of the Italian Senate.
President Zourabichvili said that if the Georgian 2024 parliamentary elections are not recognized, it means that the European Union “is not going to play in this mockery.”
According to President Zourabichvili, new elections that reflect the will of the people serve as the “stable solution” to the current situation in Georgia.
“I think that the first part of bravery is to say when elections are not being true, fair, and have not been representing the people’s will as it’s shown on the streets and other protests for now how many days, and that will continue to show that European Union is not going to play in this mockery.
Elections, if they are not any more a signal and the sign and the proof of democracy, then we are ourselves undermining what are the instruments and the basis for democracy. So it’s a very serious issue not only for Georgia but for all the other countries after, where elections are happening if we consider that we can just move around and not take a position.
There has to be a position because there has to be a solution. If there is no position, we cannot go to the only political and normal process, which are new elections that reflect the will of the people. That is the only stable solution.
As to my holding my post. It’s very symbolic, of course, because, as you know, the president in Georgia has no executive power at all. But recede would be to say that the parody of an election of a president that has been choosing to plays a role in this parody exactly, would be treason to the people that are standing on the streets. I’m not the one calling the people on the streets. I’m only the one representing them outside of the country, and I’m a kind of a link and the symbol. And I think that those people on the streets need that symbol. And that’s also a form of stability. And also for our partners outside, they have to know who they can talk to because there are many political parties, there are many new forms and forces that are emerging from the street protests that are going to be also very present. So there has to be one phone for talking to these very wide array of the Georgian society. And that’s society has to be supported and to support that society you have to support it through me,” she said.