OSCE PA Vice-President Gudrun Kugler urges Georgian authorities to withdraw lawsuit targeting opposition parties

“Stop the attempt to ban opposition parties and return to the path of democracy,” Gudrun Kugler, Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, has said in a statement regarding the lawsuit seeking to ban opposition parties in Georgia.

“I am deeply concerned about the proceedings initiated at Georgia’s Constitutional Court, which aim to ban five opposition parties at the initiative of lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party. Political competition should be resolved through elections and open democratic debate, not by removing political opponents through court proceedings initiated by the ruling majority,” Kugler wrote on social media.

According to Kugler, “banning political parties is an extraordinary measure that must meet the highest democratic and legal standards.”

“As Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I call on the Georgian authorities to withdraw this lawsuit and end politically motivated legal persecution. Georgia must not become a country where the political opposition is viewed not as an integral part of democratic life, but as an enemy to be eliminated. As a participating State of the OSCE and a member of the Council of Europe, Georgia must honour its commitments,” the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President stated.