Georgian Government Launches Constitutional Dispute Against President Salome Zourabichvili
By Khatia Bzhalava
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The Georgian government is launching a constitutional dispute against Salome Zourabichvili. The Georgian Dream has issued a statement saying that the president has been criticized for ‘violating the constitution’, including for the recent visits to Paris and Brussels.
“The Government of Georgia is forced to apply to the Constitutional Court in the near future within the framework of the dispute over the competencies of the competence and to request confirmation of the violation of the Constitution by the President of Georgia.
According to the Constitution, the President of Georgia can conduct international negotiations and exercise representative powers only with the consent of the Government.
In violation of this constitutional reservation, without the consent of the Government of Georgia, the President of Georgia, as she herself admitted at yesterday's sitting, made several visits to different countries. It should also be noted that these visits were planned by the President without any prior consultation with the Government and the Government was informed of the visits only after that, confirming that the President had intentionally violated the Constitution.
“We have taken care of the institution of the president and have not made this fact public, however, now that the president herself has made it public, we consider it necessary to have a political response to it,” the Georgian Dream stated.
In the statement, Georgian Dream reminded the President “that the rules of the state system are not determined by the President but by the Constitution, and no one can allow the President to change the Constitution”.
Besides, the statement reads that the President over the past year on multiple occasions refused to appoint an ambassador or diplomatic representative nominated by the government, which, according to the GD political council, is ‘grossly’ contrary to the Constitution of Georgia.
Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia said on Tuesday that the question of impeachment of the President of Georgia was not on the agenda. According to him, the President’s address revealed that she had exercised powers above those defined under the Constitution, and addressing the Constitutional Court serves to regulate this situation.
Yesterday, March 14, after the President's speech in the Parliament, the Chairman of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, said that if Salome Zourabichvili told the truth about her visit to Europe without the consent of the government, she had violated the Constitution and "they will find out."
“If what the president said is true, it turns out that he violated the constitution, we will find out,” Kobakhidze said.
The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, in her speech to the Parliament, said that on February 26 she received a written refusal to pay working visits to Paris, Berlin, Brussels, and Warsaw.
According to Zourabichvili, she was forced to use personal contacts.
As Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili told the reporters later, the reason why Zourabichvili was denied visits abroad was that the government believes the President should be in her own country during the difficult processes in the region.
During her speech at the parliament, the president stressed that Georgia needs to develop a uniform plan which will be a manifestation of national unity and called on the government and the opposition parties to engage in this process.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan praised the Georgian President’s address to Parliament, underscoring that ‘the president’s speech was excellent’. According to her, the President had a very clear and strong message. The ambassador noted that Zourabichvili’s speech was a reflection of the desire to bring help to the Ukrainian people, and at the same time to bring unity to Georgia through cooperation, compromise and dialogue.
