“Completely unacceptable”: Georgian Parliament official criticises EU Ambassador’s remarks

Levan Machavariani, the first deputy chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party faction in the legislative body, on Friday said that recent statements by Paweł Herczyński, the EU ambassador to Georgia, were unacceptable and risk further eroding public trust toward the European Union.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Machavariani noted that the ambassador had previously made statements against the ruling party and had called on voters not to support the party ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

“Previously, we saw Mr. Herczyński’s statements specifically directed against the Georgian Dream. Before the 2024 elections, he called on voters not to support the Georgian Dream. In this case, he is directly threatening our country and its citizens, using extremely harsh language and invoking the threat of civil war”, he said.

“This is absolutely unacceptable, and Eurocrats should not be surprised that the Georgian people’s trust in them has sharply declined”, Machavariani concluded.

Earlier, Herczyński stated that “Georgia and its warm and hospitable people” must not be allowed to slip back into a period marked by “violence, civil conflict, poverty, hardship, and corruption”.