On November 28, President Salome Zurabishvili made a statement after meeting with the Diplomatic Corps and opposition members. She said the Georgian Dream’s decision to abort the EU accession process has finalized the “constitutional coup” after the rigged October 26 parliamentary elections. She called on the EU to hold new elections in Georgia. President also called on the opposition to unite and urged Georgian ambassadors, civil servants, police, and the army to stand by Georgian people today.
Zurabishvili said that the “illegitimate government’s” decision heralds the end of Georgian statehood, independence, and future, dragging it towards Russia. “Today, this illegitimate government has declared not peace but war,” Zurabishvili said, alluding to the Georgian Dream’s campaign promises of peace.
The President criticized the European diplomats for being “late in their assessment of the situation” and said she urged them today “to immediately take all the decisions that should have been taken in the past months and to help the Georgian citizens hold new elections.”
Zurabishvili called on all opposition members and CSO representatives to put aside their differences and pledged to stand by them as an embodiment of the “only remaining legitimate institution” as long as this unity holds. “Today, we need reasonable decisions made in coordination with each other,” she noted.
She issued a separate call to civil servants: “It is time to make your decision… It is time to think about the future you’re leaving your children.”
Addressing the Georgian Ambassadors abroad, Zurabishvili stressed: “We’ve already asked you once before: What are you doing today? Whom do you serve? What do you serve? Where are you? Can you imagine the absurdity you are living in? […] Russia will be here tomorrow if we don’t all raise our voices from wherever we are.”
“I want to address the police, the real police, the police that serves the state, you are nothing without the state. And your duty in this state is to protect citizens, not slaves, not Russians, not foreigners, not traitors,” she continued.
To Georgian soldiers, President Zurabishvili said: “I would like to address the army, whose hearts ache the most today because it cannot and should not do anything today. But it remains the most loyal to this country and is the most hurt by the return of this country to Russia.” She pledged to them, “Nobody will be able to take away our independence.”
