Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party will start collecting the necessary votes to start impeachment proceedings against Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili over her visits to countries of the European Union (EU) that were not coordinated with the government, Georgian media said on Monday.
The ruling party will reportedly gather the necessary 50 votes of deputies at a meeting of the parliamentary majority.
Georgian parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili said the ruling party would go to the constitutional court after collecting the signatures.
"We have decided to start the process of impeachment. A document with the signatures of 50 lawmakers will be prepared, then we will apply to the constitutional court, and the court will have one month to prepare a legal decision and submit it to parliament. If the constitutional court finds that there is a violation of the constitution, a vote will be taken in parliament. I am aware of the opposition's statements that they do not plan to support the impeachment, but they will have to make a decision at the vote," Papuashvili told reporters.
Later in the day, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili called the ruling party's decision to impeach Zourabichvili fair.
"It is sad that the Georgian president defiantly violates the law. We must be an example and defender of the law in general, and we must set an example for others, so the ruling party's decision was absolutely fair. After the president's statement that the country doesn't deserve this status, do you remember anybody's indignation, anybody's concern, anybody's criticism, anybody's protest? For me, all this is easily explainable hypocrisy, it is a lie and humiliating and insulting for our people," Garibashvili said at a government meeting.
The prime minister added that neither the president nor the opposition had done anything to bring the country closer to joining the EU over the past decade.
"Neither the president of Georgia nor our critics — the opposition — have done anything over the past ten years on the path to European integration. All of this is solely the merit of the Georgian Dream — the association agreement, free trade, the visa-free regime and a European perspective. I believe that our European friends will have more than enough arguments to give our country the status it deserves," Garibashvili added.
In March 2022, Georgia applied for the status of EU membership candidate. At a top-level summit in June of that year, the European Council did not grant candidate status to the country, saying that the country had yet to implement the recommended reforms, including strengthening its democratic institutions, maintaining fundamental rights and freedoms, tackling corruption, combating organized crime, and involving civil society in decision-making processes.
In order for the process of removing an official from office by impeachment to be considered initiated, a written request for its initiation must be signed by at least one-third of the full membership of the Georgian parliament. The president shall be considered removed from office by impeachment if such a decision is supported by at least two-thirds of the full composition of the parliament. The parliamentary majority is 84 votes out of 150, and impeachment requires the support of 100 deputies. This is the first impeachment attempt against Zourabichvili.