President Zourabichvili gives a speech on strengthening institutions and depolarization
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, November 25, 2022
President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, attended an event organized by Eka Beselia's party, where recommendations for justice reform were presented and gave a speech.
In her speech, President Zourabichvili talked about the importance of consensus and depolarization in the country, as well as strong institutes. According to her, Georgia lacks all the following:
"We have neither strong institutions, nor respect for institutions, nor justice," said the President.
According to her, "agreement on a justice reform is a way for us to do what we don't know how to do - that is depolarization."
President said in her speech that the most important thing is to reach a consensus, without which everything will be 'in vain'.
"We didn't expect to be nominated, the date was 2024, but nothing was ready for that yet, and it kind of happened, and we should be grateful for that." Even today, the situation in Ukraine is very serious, the bombs do not stop, and also, today the UN Security Council meeting was held, and it can be seen how serious this situation is. I want to honor the 27th Georgian who died in Ukraine. They fight on their own free will and are not representatives of the state, but they are representatives of Georgian dignity.
In these 12 recommendations, it is clear that justice and bringing this reform to the end is the main thing because it is the way for us to get out of the Soviet system. There is no other way, from this follows all the rest.
Protecting human rights, protecting business, setting European safety standards, tackling discrimination, determining whether or not hearings are necessary (by the way, I would like to say that I was a little short of your support when I vetoed a very un-European law.
.If there is no minimum consensus, the country cannot develop. Today, there may be polarization in other countries and we look at strong and less strong countries and the same procedures are taking place there, but those countries are beyond that line, they are already in that democratic world, and for them, there is the main defense mechanism, which is the strength of institutions. If there is, barriers have already been created, which protect against any polarization, so that it does not turn into something else, but we do not have, neither strong institutions, respect for institutions, or principles, including justice. Justice is not a foreign fruit to us. It comes from Georgian traditions since time immemorial," Zourabichvili said.
