The European political party ALDE has responded to criticism directed at it by the Georgian government, including by Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

InterPressNews addressed specific questions to ALDE regarding Shalva Papuashvili's statements and received a written response from the party.

The matter concerns the strong stance taken by Lelo – Strong Georgia—an ALDE member party—regarding the implementation of Arab-backed projects in Georgia, a position Shalva Papuashvili has termed as "xenophobia." The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament had called on ALDE to distance itself from Lelo.

"We welcome the continued and frequent interest Mr Papuashvili has in the views of the ALDE Party. While he knows that we as a European Political Party don’t engage with domestic campaigns, our principles and values are well-known and established, enshrined within our Charter of Values.

Notably, but not exclusively, they affirm our member parties believe that in a liberal democracy, governments derive their power from the trust and confidence of citizens though free and fair elections. We work towards fighting corruption and ensuring high standards of transparency in decision-making, because we believe these in turn foster an environment of trust, contestability and accountability between governments and their citizens.

ALDE has, and will continue to, stand with the Georgian people in admiration of their steadfast commitment to securing the Euro-Atlantic future of their country.

We continue in calls for the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, including political leaders such as Elene Khoshtaria, journalists and peaceful protesters, to stop ignoring and cracking down on your own people who continue to protest on the streets of Tbilisi and across the country, and to make a better choice than barring citizens’ political participation and moving closer to a one-party dictatorship,” reads the statement.