The ruling party of Georgia announced the beginning of impeachment proceedings against the president due to an unauthorized trip to Europe
Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, accused the country’s President Salome Zurabishvili of “gross violation” of the constitution. She went on an official visit to Germany without government permission, which is against the law.
Kobakhidze emphasized that Georgia is a parliamentary republic, where executive power, as well as domestic and foreign policy, are exercised only by the government. This means the president “does not participate in the implementation of foreign policy.”
According to him, 100 votes in parliament are needed for impeachment. At the same time, Zurabishvili relies on the opposition party “United National Movement”, which will vote against it. Georgia’s government administration said Wednesday that authorities had rejected requests from Zurabishvili’s office to approve her official visits to Germany, Ukraine, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Israel. Zurabishvili shrugged it off and met with the German president on Thursday, where her administration said it would hold a series of meetings with European leaders to speed up Georgia’s bid for EU membership.