Georgian Parliament Speaker slams EU Ambassador’s remarks as “repulsive”, “encouragement of hate”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday issued a harsh rebuke of recent statements made by Paweł Herczyński, the EU Ambassador to the country, calling them “alarming” and accusing the diplomat of enabling hatred, violence, and propaganda.

Papuashvili was reacting to Herczyński’s latest interview, in which the Ambassador discussed potential EU sanctions and their impact, including on the personal lives of sanctioned individuals.

“In this lengthy interview, we heard a passage concerning possible EU sanctions. He spoke about how family members might view someone who is sanctioned by the European Union. I have rarely heard a more disgusting statement than this. It reflects the exact value crisis that, unfortunately, exists in Brussels and shows how distorted the Ambassador’s idea of family is. He imagines that a child will turn against a parent, a parent against a child, and so on. Is this really what Mr. Herczynski imagines?” the Speaker said.

“This shows how disconnected the comments we are hearing are from the European understanding. According to his view, family members evaluate one another based on decisions made in Brussels? Is this how he envisions his own or anyone else’s family? This just shows how little he understands Georgia. God bless the khachapuri that, according to him, he received for free, but Georgia is a bit more than khachapuri and khinkali. Everyone should understand that”, he noted.

Papuashvili also addressed that when someone promoted such an idea of Georgian families and contemplated raising Pavlik Morozovs in Georgia - referring to the infamous Soviet child who denounced his father to authorities - it was disgusting to hear such statements.

“It also reveals that what he let slip is that sanctions are not merely a legal instrument - they’re, in fact, a tool for stigmatization, to label people”, he concluded.