Georgian Foreign Minister criticises Eurocrats for meddling in domestic politics

Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili on Wednesday accused Eurocrats of actively seeking to influence Georgia's political processes to install a government aligned with their interests, rather than the will of Georgian voters.

In her interview with Imedi TV, Botchorishvili noted that these external actors were “in search of what might influence political processes in Georgia, what might influence them in such a way that a desired situation is established in Georgia, and the group of people they want to be in power, not those desired by Georgian voters, but those who suit them for specific tasks”.

She further asserted that there was “no doubt” that such a group of politicians exists within Georgia, claiming they “are already proving that they are watching what instructions any bureaucrat issues, which is aimed at harming Georgia's national interests, and there are no good intentions behind this”.

“[Members of the European Parliament] are looking for something that can influence the political processes in Georgia, something that can influence them in such a way that the situation they want to achieve in Georgia is established and a group of people in power is not the one that Georgian voters want, but the one that they organize to fulfill specific tasks”, the Foreign Minister said.

In response to a journalist's question regarding the statement of Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on sanctioning Georgian judges, Botchorishvili noted that it was very difficult to find a legal justification for these statements and somehow justify the calls for the punishment of the judges.

“In general, it is very difficult to find a legal justification for these statements and to somehow justify the calls for the punishment of the judge, to impose sanctions on the judges, that is, to influence the court in this way and then talk about the independence of the court and give lectures about how justice should be supreme and how everyone should be equal before the law, while justifying those who violate the law, demanding the punishment of the judge for the decision made for violating this law and imposing sanctions. All this is illogical. It does not fit into any European values”, she concluded.