The political council of Georgian Dream publishes a statement and says that “the recent actions of Salome Zourabichvili are characterized by extreme non-objectivity and political bias”.

“For the past 2 years, the President of Georgia has been making statements more and more often, which are perceived and evaluated negatively.

First of all, by the part of the Georgian society that supported her in the 2018 presidential elections, based on our call.

Although such perception and assessment have a solid objective basis, we don’t consider it appropriate to respond to Salome Zourabichvili’s political statements.

As the ruling party, we have a special responsibility to protect the highest constitutional institutions of Georgia, including the institution of the President of Georgia.

In the presidential elections of 2018, we supported the candidacy of Salome Zourabichvili precisely with the expectation that she would properly fulfill the function of the impartial president in the parliamentary governance system.

We considered that a non-partisan lady, who was a descendant of the famous figures of the First Republic of Georgia and thus embodied the connection between the history of the First Republic of Georgia and modern Georgia, would be the best candidate for this mission.

However, unfortunately, she chose another path and during the last 2 years, she clearly showed political bias in favor of the agenda of the radical opposition forces.

In 2018, when she was elected to the position of the President, the leadership of Georgian Dream clearly explained to Salome Zourabichvili their attitude regarding the fact that despite the support in the elections, she should not have any obligations towards the ruling party.

Georgian Dream fully observed this approach from the day Salome Zourabichvili took the oath and is still observing it. It can be seen from this that in supporting the candidacy of Salome Zourabichvili in the 2018 presidential elections, our only goal was to properly establish the above-party institution of the President of Georgia in the parliamentary governance system.

Although Salome Zourabichvili’s recent actions are characterized by extreme non-objectivity, which is grossly contrary to the purpose of a non-party constitutional official, our position is that we should refrain from criticizing the President as a matter of principle. It is our responsibility not to contribute to the undermining of the institution of the President. For the same purpose, we consider ourselves obliged not to allow anyone to deepen the political confrontation. We must protect the institution of the presidency even when the prestige of this institution is threatened by the incumbent President herself.

We hope, Salome Zourabichvili will not enter into an even more intense confrontation with the majority of Georgian society. Georgian Dream is ready to provide the maximum assistance to the President of Georgia in order to avoid deepening the confrontation with the people”, - reads the statement.