2024-12-01 15:33 update: 2024-12-01, 15:36
Photo PAP/Marcin Obara
Poland's President Andrzej Duda has called on the Georgian government to take into account the voice of its citizens and withdraw from the decision to suspend accession negotiations with the European Union, the President's Office has reported.
President Duda was quoted by his office as making the statement following a Saturday telephone conversation with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili.
"Therefore, President Andrzej Duda calls on the government of Georgia to exercise restraint and prudence, to listen to the voice of its citizens and to abandon the decisions which run counter to their will, to demonstrate openness in clarifying all doubts about the course of recent parliamentary elections and readiness to call new elections, free from any doubts and suspicions," the President's Office said in a statement on Saturday.
"The place of Georgia is in a united Europe," it added.
"President Andrzej Duda has consistently supported the long–standing aspirations of the Georgian people to be part of the European Union," the office wrote, adding that this goal was included in the Georgian constitution, and, according to all polls, it was being supported by a vast majority of the Georgian people.
"The decision of the Tbilisi government on the complete suspension of the accession negotiations, which de facto means freezing of relations with the EU, is a painful blow to these aspirations and brings a very serious damage to both Georgia and the European Union," the President's Office continued in a statement published on the president's website.
"This radical step, which is clearly in the interest of Russia, is contradictory to the pre–election declarations of the Georgian Dream, and hence looks like electoral fraud," it said.
According to the President's Office, during the telephone conversation, the Georgian president informed her Polish counterpart about the current situation in Georgia following the recent decision of the government on the complete suspension of the accession negotiations with the European Union until 2028. She also spoke about the ongoing social protests and expressed her deep concern over the possible intensification of tensions, the escalation of the internal conflict and a serious constitutional crisis in Georgia.
Mass-scale demonstrations against the government decision have been taking place in Georgia since Thursday. Georgian President Salome Zourabishvili has supported the protesters and accused the government of declaring a war against its own people. She also said that she will remain in office until legal parliament elects her successor. Both the president and the Georgian opposition do not recognise the result of the October 26 parliamentary election which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union. According to official results, the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party won the October vote. (PAP)
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