It is very important that no one from outside says whether Government legitimate or not, it would really harm the sovereignty of the country if somebody from outside stipulated its legitimacy, said Pia Kauma, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in the interview with Radio Liberty.

“… I think, first of all, all countries have things to improve. The level of democracy is never finalized. There are always things to improve. But had that case been Finland, I think it would have been very important also from our point of view that nobody from outside tells us if the government is legitimate or not. It would really harm the sovereignty of the country if somebody from outside stipulated its legitimacy”, - explained the OSCE PA President.

Responding to a hypothetical scenario about the OSCE/ODIHR publishing a report on Finland’s elections like the one in Georgia’s case and if she would have any questions about the legitimacy of her Government, she shared her perspective on the external assessments of democratic governance.

“Well, I would have promoted dialogue in that case too. I think it’s always a good tool. And what I’m really concerned about when it comes to Georgia at the moment is that the governing party, the opposition are quite apart from each other in their views. In my opinion, at some point, it would be advisable to have somebody mediate or facilitate a dialogue between the different parties, as is done in Finland. People, especially in small countries, simply have to stick together. If we are divided, we cannot fight the external fights. Therefore, we should do our best to avoid polarization and try to understand each other”, - said Pia Kauma.

She also talks about her planned – and subsequently cancelled – visit to Georgia.

“ODIHR published its final report regarding the findings and recommendations on Georgia’s October 26 parliamentary elections at the end of December. And my intention, and the intention of my colleagues, was to travel to Georgia and to engage in dialogue the government representatives, the opposition and also civil society, regarding these recommendations. There are very good primary recommendations that should be implemented immediately, and we were really ready to help Georgia as a whole in order to get the work started. … I do understand that some people may interpret it [visit] that way, but it was never our intention by any means, to show it as an equivalent of us recognizing the government by traveling to Georgia. We don’t do that as a general rule. It is not our job. Not our mandate.

… It would have been very important to engage with all the important counterparts in Georgian society, including the opposition and civil society organizations. But it seemed that there was not enough willingness to meet us at this point, and I think that while it is important that we, on the OSCE side, show initiative to travel to Georgia, there has to be enough, how to put it, welcoming spirit in the country too.

I received a letter from 3 opposition parties saying that they would rather see me coming later or they would like to have certain conditions in place before I come. One of them was regarding setting a date for new elections, the other was regarding the detained protesters - that those people should be released. And at this point, of course, it would be very difficult for me to meet these requirements. But I want to add that the government officials were willing to meet with us and were also very prepared and ready to discuss all the recommendations of ODIHR. … [the visit was canceled] because had I traveled to Tbilisi and met only with government officials, it would have sent precisely the message I wanted to avoid: that we were showing support for the government. As I’ve said, that is not our role, and we do not wish to do so. So in this very hectic situation, it really would be useful only if we met all the important parties”.