Special Briefing by the President of Georgia on Next Steps

December 1, 2024
President of Georgia,
Atoneli Residence, Tbilisi, Georgia

The President of Georgia, H.E. Salome Zourabichvili, after a meeting with political parties and representatives of civil society, stated that a national consensus had been reached, which, first of all, is a sign that "we are not going towards Russia and we are going towards EU," which, in her words, was everyone's declared goal, and if anyone did not deviate from this goal, it was society.

"...This is yet another proof that in this country, and here in this palace, there has truly been a national consensus about what we have to do today, where we are going and where we are not going, and this consensus is primarily around the fact that we are not going towards Russia, we are going towards EU, which was our declared goal, and if someone deviated, society, as a whole, did not deviate and remains faithful to this goal.

We also discussed the protest that is taking place in the streets, which is a completely independent process, independent of political parties, independent of any organization, self-organized and spontaneous, which is very clearly seen in the fact that practically, today there is no city in Georgia that is not involved in this protest and very spontaneously. It includes all generations and all professions, all social spheres. This civil protest should remain as it is, with its spontaneity and freedom, self-organized, it does not need, and we all agreed on this, any intervention from political parties, not even my intervention, of course, but it needs support and it needs protection".

In addition, the Georgian President says that the civil protest taking place on the streets today needs support and protection, which means legal protection for those arrested during the protests and, in the future, the creation of the special fund that will cover the fines imposed on the demonstrators.

“We must also protect them from provocations,” - Georgian President Zurabishvili calls on the participants of the protest to be careful and says that among them there may be representatives of the State Security Service. The Georgian President declared that the rumors that Georgian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are preparing to join this process are false: “This is also a provocation directed against this protest.”

As for the joint plan, President Salome Zourabichvili said that now all efforts should be directed towards the Constitutional Court, which has not yet scheduled a session to consider the President's lawsuit. On November 19, President of Georgia H.E. Salome Zourabichvili filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court, according to which the results of the October 26 elections should be annulled. The Court has 30 days to consider the lawsuit.

“We must direct all our efforts to schedule a hearing - a positive resolution of the lawsuit will return us to the framework of the Constitution”, Salome Zourabichvili said, noting that the Constitutional Court and its judges have a huge, unique opportunity to resolve the “very deep crisis” in the country.

The President of Georgia stated that the main demand and goal remains to hold new elections, and, in his words, only this will lead the country to peace.

SOS Georgia!