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Responding to the Authoritarian Escalation in Georgia

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  1. Whereas we express serious concerns about the rapid authoritarian decline in Georgia and about a full fledged constitutional, political and human rights crisis the country has plunged into after the Georgian Dream’s announcement that Georgia suspends its EU integration process;
  2. Whereas the ongoing and relentless crackdown on political dissent – including by politically motivated prosecution of politicians, journalists, and civil society representatives, and adoption of repressive legislation and the abuse of politically motivated legal proceedings – questions the very existence of democracy in Georgia and violates its obligations as the EU candidate country;
  3. Whereas no effective investigations have been conducted into police brutality and other human rights abuses during the demonstrations, nor into the many substantiated reports of torture and ill-treatment of demonstrators during their arrest and detention;
  4. Whereas the recent announcement by Georgian Dream concerning the intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court to declare the United National Movement and other democratic parties unconstitutional, and such banning per se effectively establishes a one-party dictatorship in Georgia;
  5. Whereas President Mikheil Saakashvili serves his unjustified political sentences already 4 years, and more then 12 politicians and more then 80 civic activists, including independent female journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, has been jailed for unjustified, fabricated charges;
  6. Whereas Georgian Dream’s actions against NGOs endangers their functioning and existence;
  7. Whereas intimidation and retaliation against civil servants, including a large number of dismissals, have continued that undermines the existence of an independent and impartial civil service in Georgia;
  8. Whereas the legitimacy of the recent local elections has not been recognized neither domestically not internationally;
Therefore, the European People’s Party:
  1. Reiterates its solidarity with the people of Georgia for their legitimate democratic rights and for a sovereign, democratic, European future;
  2. Calls for the EU and its Member States, as well as national parliaments and interparliamentary institutions, not to recognise the legitimacy of Georgian Dream’s one-party parliament or its appointed president as October 2024 Parliamentary Elections were fundamentally flawed;
  3. Condemns Georgian Dream’s continued decline into authoritarianism and drift towards the Russian orbit, and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, halting the execution of all repressive legislation, and putting an end to the abuse of politically motivated legal proceedings and the terror against its own citizens;
  4. Calls for use relevant international instruments for an independent, transparent and impartial investigation into police brutality and the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators;
  5. Calls on all EU Member States and likeminded international partners to use international instruments, inter alia, Council of Europe’s GRECO and Moneyval to follow up recent high-profile cases of corruption and money-laundering in Georgia;
  6. Stresses that Georgian Dream is fully responsible for the consequences regarding the possible suspension of the visa free regime for certain categories of Georgian citizens under the Article 8a(1)(h) of the revised Regulation (EU) 2018/1806; and calls on the European Commission to ensure that is applied in a targeted manner for individuals holding positions of responsibility and their families;
  7. Calls on the European Council, and the EU Member States to impose personal sanctions on the regime’s ruling, financial and propaganda elites as well as those responsible for electoral fraud, human rights violations and the persecution of political opponents and activists;
  8. Calls on Georgian Dream to reverse its publicly stated intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court to declare the United National Movement and other democratic parties unconstitutional;
  9. Calls on Georgian Dream to set a specific date for the conduct of new, free, fair and competitive parliamentary elections, with state institutions, including the Central Election Commission, functioning free of political interference rather than in a condition of state capture.


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