Four opposition groups criticise CoE Secretary General

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Four opposition groups — Strong Georgia, Coalition for Change, Unity — National Movement, and For Georgia — have issued a joint statement calling on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Committee of Ministers to raise the ‘issue of the integrity of Alain Berset’s actions during his visit to Georgia and their compliance with the founding principles of the Council of Europe at the public debates to be held in January’.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has today completed a three-day working visit in Georgia, during which he met with multiple high-ranking Georgian Dream officials.

According to the joint statement, Berset’s final press conference contained messages that do not serve to defuse the crisis, ‘but on the contrary, further aggravate the situation in the country and encourage violence from Georgian Dream’.

‘Despite the clear statement of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe at the summary press conference that his visit to Georgia does not serve to legitimise the elections, which in itself is important for exposing the Russian propaganda of Georgian Dream, we believe that his visit at such a time and the content of the summary statement were essentially irresponsible and do not correspond to the spirit of the Council of Europe, the principles and values of this institution’, the statement read.

‘This is completely out of touch with the extremely difficult situation that exists in Georgia today and raises legitimate questions regarding the real motives of this visit’.

The four parties emphasised that ‘it is completely unacceptable and inappropriate to talk about any attempt to make any legislative changes to the [foreign agent law] and “ennoble” it, or to create any type of working group for this purpose under the conditions of an illegitimate parliament and government’.

They added that the foreign agent law, ‘as well as other anti-democratic and anti-European legislative changes’ adopted by Georgian Dream, should be repealed ‘immediately after the change of government’.

‘The Secretary General received quite detailed explanations on the above issues during his meetings with political parties. Despite this, he voiced completely contextless and irresponsible messages, which raises logical doubts about his integrity’.