Politics Before Georgia election: ruling party wants to remove president

In the South Caucasus republic of Georgia, the ruling party is initiating new impeachment proceedings against the pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili ahead of the parliamentary elections. According to local media in Tbilisi, parliamentary leader Shalva Papuashvili said that the reason for this was once again an unauthorized business trip abroad.

The party referred to the constitution, according to which the government must approve trips by the head of state, who has hardly any powers left. Last year, a procedure for this reason failed. In the parliamentary elections on October 26, the ruling party is hoping for a strong enough majority in parliament to remove the president this time. The background to the dispute is Surabishvili's trip to Europe last week, during which she also visited Germany.

As Zurabishvili's term of office expires at the end of the year anyway, the planned dismissal is rather symbolic for the national-conservative government, which had moved closer to Russia again.

Against fierce protests, the party recently pushed through a Russian-style law aimed at curbing alleged foreign influence on civil society. The EU had only made the former Soviet republic of Georgia a candidate country at the end of 2023, but has put the process on hold because of this law.