The European Union Ambassador to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, responded to criticism from members of Georgian Dream following his comments on the party's pre-election banners.
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"I was asked by the media to express my opinion and I expressed it, and it is up to the free and independent media to decide what rules to follow. I do not respond to the statements of others, this is not my role as an ambassador of the European Union. My role as an EU ambassador is to represent the EU's position. So right now, especially in the context of the ongoing election campaign, I'm sorry, but I can't comment on that statement, or any other statement.
What I can say is that according to diplomatic practice, any country has the opportunity to ask a foreign diplomat to leave the country, and in recent months or years, unfortunately, we have had many such cases in the case of several other countries," said Herchinski.
The EU ambassador called the ruling party's election banners and videos "outrageous, shameful, and disgusting," referring to the contrast between buildings destroyed in Ukraine by Russian aggression and infrastructure built or rehabilitated under Georgian Dream in Georgia. The banners are accompanied by the slogan No to War, Choose Peace. TV companies Mtavari Arkhi, TV Pirveli, and Formula refused to air the banners.
Leaders of Georgian Dream described Herchinski's statement as interference in the election process. The party’s general secretary and mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze, said that in all developed countries, an ambassador would be "kicked out” for such a statement. According to the Chairman of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, the ambassador's statement is "hypocritical."
"This is unfortunately a hypocritical attitude toward us. We have repeatedly appealed to the representatives of the European Union. They could, for example, have evaluated the visit of Polish doctors as shameful when we saw, among others, a group of doctors arrive at the request and advice of EU member states, secretly taking a sample with a sock to prepare something bad. At that time, the ambassador did not find it shameful. He also did not call the European Parliament’s resolution, where Mikheil Saakashvili was presented in a positive light, outrageous. Nor did he find the calls from some EU representatives or the head of a member state for Georgia to impose sanctions on Russia appalling - calls which would put Georgia at risk of entering into military conflict with Russia," said Shalva Papuashvili.
According to the Chairman of Parliament, the European diplomat’s statement was the reason TV companies refused to air the Georgian Dream video clips. In response, Pawel Herczynski said it is up to the media to decide "which statements to follow or not to follow."
