Senior Georgian Dream officials have suggested summoning EU Ambassador in Georgia Paweł Herczyński over his remarks made in Brussels, where the diplomat warned, among others, not to let Georgian people “go back to the dark times.”
The remarks, obtained by Netgazeti, were made on April 23 during the launching ceremony of “Georgia in Focus” exhibition hosted by the European External Action Service (EEAS). The exhibition features Georgia’s key moments of the past decade captured by Georgian photographers and collected through the EU Prize for Journalism initiative, an annual award organized by the EU mission in Georgia.
“Clearly, Georgia is at a crossroads,” Herczyński said as he addressed the event. “The future in Georgia is not written yet, but whatever will be decided in the next weeks and months will determine if Georgia belongs to the family of European countries based on democracy, rule of law, and human rights, or Georgia, unfortunately, would move back to its dark past.”
According to the diplomat, Georgia “is not on a right trajectory” since it was granted the EU candidate status in December 2023. “The authorities have chosen an alternative model, a model of authoritarianism, and are actually bringing Georgia away from the European Union,” he noted.
“I am not losing hope that Georgia will go back on the path of EU integration, that Georgia will remain a democracy,” Herczyński went on, saying his main message to Georgians has been “do not lose hope.” The ambassador then said: “We cannot let Georgia and wonderful, warm, hospitable Georgian people go back to the dark times of violence, civil war, poverty, deprivation, corruption. This is not the future they deserve.”
He said the EU is ready to “help” and “assist” the Georgian people. “Once the authorities are willing to work with us, we will do our utmost to help Georgia to become a member of the European Union,” the diplomat noted.
GD Accuses EU Diplomat of ‘Threats’
The remarks were met with backlash in Tbilisi, with senior Georgian Dream officials framing them as a “threat” and suggesting summoning the diplomat.
“It’s difficult for me to even assess this statement,” GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters. “When the EU ambassador threatens Georgian people with a civil war and impoverishment, this is simply unimaginable,” Kobakhidze said, noting that the ambassador finds himself “in a tragic situation” as he “has to voice such threats against Georgian people.”
“Of course, it is appropriate to summon an ambassador for this,” he later told reporters, who cited similar calls made by Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze earlier in the day.
Kaladze told journalists in separate remarks that “the ambassador must be summoned necessarily.” Echoing longtime GD conspiracy about West trying to drag Georgia into war with Russia, Kaladze said that “if, until now, some have been calling on us to get involved in the war in concealed, veiled terms,” the ambassador now “directly came out and spoke about civil confrontation and war, directly threatened Georgians and the Georgian state.”
The controversy follows a worsened state of bilateral ties between Tbilisi and Brussels amid the Georgian Dream government’s anti-democratic moves and anti-EU discourse. The EU said in November that Georgia is a candidate country “in name only” and moved to suspend visa-free travel for Georgian holders of diplomatic and service passports.
Georgian Dream officials and allied media have repeatedly accused European diplomats of meddling in Georgia’s domestic affairs and, in recent months, have summoned some of them, including the German and British ambassadors, to the foreign ministry.
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