Polarization is one of the challenges of democracy and weakens the country, - the President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, said during her speech at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg.

The President of Georgia spoke at the forum about the challenges of democracy and said that polarization is "the most useful" for the enemy.

"The Rose Revolution has been repeated many times outside the country, although the democratization of Georgia began much earlier, in earlier centuries. Most recently it happened in the last century, with the first independence in 1918, which was interrupted by the Russian invasion and occupation, then there was the 70-year Soviet regime, which brought a change in mentality, repression, isolation”, she said.

According to her, we are facing a challenge today that threatens democracy.

“Of course, we have not reached the ideal of democracy, but which of you has today? We had periods when reforms were quick and times when they were slow, but we are facing a challenge that threatens today's democracy. A challenge that the Ukrainian nation (and I want to pay tribute to the Ukrainian people as a whole, not just the fighters) is admirably resisting. What is even more amazing and inspiring is the complete unity of this nation in the face of this great challenge. This is the power that is successful in this war.

There is another challenge to democracy - polarization, which is everywhere and has invaded us. It is among political parties, in the media or in the church, which is a very large and important institution in Georgia. Polarization in the sense that you no longer trust the other, when you think that the other is already an enemy, when you have an enemy at the border, when you are in a region that has not fully achieved stability yet, because there are no security institutions, because we have not joined European and NATO borders yet. I wouldn't say that we are in a gray zone, although we are not in a safe zone either, and at such a moment, polarization becomes a crime against the nation, because it weakens the country the most, is the most useful for the enemy, when it is not using a military attack. We must not forget that the Russian base is just 30 kilometers from the capital and that Russia occupies 20% of the country's territory. This is not a comforting situation, this is the situation in which we live and in spite of which we develop this democratic resilience, even though it is not ideal.

The third challenge is the lack of reaction from our European partners. Georgia is familiar with this path. I remember the period, when I came to Georgia as the ambassador of France, and then as the minister of foreign affairs of Georgia. Back then, everyone told me that the neighborhood policy is not for Georgia, that it is too far away and will never happen. Then we saw the neighborhood policy, association, visa liberalization, free trade space - these are very important steps, although there was no reaction from Europe. Perhaps, the European political community partially responded, however, Georgia experienced great disappointment in the process of granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.

So we experienced, I would say, this existential frustration. We are and have been so European for so long. At some point we should join this European family. I think we have no time to waste today. Georgia needs candidacy. The message was understood - you are not perfect - yes we are not perfect, however, today we need candidacy and it is necessary that the next path be thorough", said the President.