Georgian Parliament Vice Speaker: Government is leading Georgia toward Europe without sacrificing national interests, values

Thea Tsulukiani, the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Wednesday said the Government would do everything possible to ensure that potential sanctions, including EU visa-free travel restrictions, apply to government officials rather than ordinary citizens.

In her interview with Imdi TV, Tsulukiani responded to a question about sanctions policy and warned that Europe was entering what she described as an “era of labels”.

“We will do everything so that, for example, the restriction of the visa-free travel and the labeling of someone as unacceptable apply to a Parliament's Vice-Speaker or a Minister, but not to my neighbour - someone who may be a businessperson or a young person trying to build a small business and who has a future ahead”, the Vice Speaker said.

She argued that sanctions were increasingly being used as labels against people with differing opinions.

“I’m sanctioned, I’m unacceptable, because I have a different opinion, I have such rhetoric that bothers you. Today I think that something is wrong and there is a virus in the body - you don’t like this and put a label on me as a sanction. The era of labels is coming in Europe, the era of labels is a dangerous era in all countries. We must say this out loud. I and citizens like me will bear everything, because we know why this is being done and why we should not be afraid of this label”, Tsulukiani continued.

“Our role is to ensure that if these labels exist, they apply to those in power and do not spread to other citizens”, she stressed.

Tsulukiani also criticised what she described as changes in Brussels over the past 10-15 years, questioning certain interpretations of Europe’s future. She said it could not be considered a “European future” to ask young children in kindergartens to define their gender, calling this a violation of children’s and parents’ rights as outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Brussels has changed a lot over the last 10-15 years, therefore, in today's Brussels, if the European future, in their opinion, is that we, in kindergartens operating in Georgia, ask girls and boys - well, tell me, in your opinion, are you a girl or a boy - this cannot be the European future. This is a gross violation of the rights of a child and a violation of parental rights, this is written in the European Convention on Human Rights, which was created and written by much greater and much smarter European fathers than we can find in any office in Brussels today”, she added.

She further rejected the notion that a European future should require Georgia to abandon claims to Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region or divide society so that a minority governs the majority.

“If the European future is that someone tells us - well, let's go to the European Union, leave your [Russian-occupied] Sokhumi and Tskhinvali - let's ask the question: is this the same European future that we imagine? If they tell us that the European future is that the public should be divided, the minority rules the majority - do we think this is the European future? This is the Government that is leading Georgia towards Europe, but not at the expense of its own national interest and national values”, Tsulukiani concluded.