The President of Georgia calls for new elections: the ruling party has captured the state, we are entering a crisis

The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, has said after a meeting with a delegation of the European Union that the ruling party close to Russia, Georgian Dream, has "virtually captured" all the institutions, and has called for new elections. to lead this country towards Euro-Atlantic integration.

Zurabishvili made these comments at a media conference in Tbilisi, after a meeting he held with a delegation of European officials, following last month's contested elections.

Georgian Dream claims to have won 54 percent of the vote, despite suspicions of massive fraud and Russian influence.

Georgians have held several protests since the October 26 election, contesting the results, and calling for a repeat election.

"We are entering a crisis", said Zurabishvili, who refused to accept the election result.

"There is no surprise here, the crisis is clear", said Zurabishvili, adding that the state needs "new elections, so that Georgia has a legitimate parliament, a legitimate government, and a new legitimate president when the time comes." ".

Last year, Georgia gained the status of a candidate country for membership in the European Union, but democracy in this country has begun to fade, after the decisions taken by the Georgian Dream to adopt a Russian-style law on "foreign agents" and measures against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

All of this has prompted Brussels to warn Georgia that it is jeopardizing the European integration process.

The President of the European Commission, Charles Michel, said on October 8 that "there are serious suspicions of fraud, which require serious investigations", referring to the October 26 elections.

The EU delegation is formed by the heads of the Foreign Affairs Committees from the parliaments of Germany, Finland, Sweden, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.

Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Georgian Parliament, which is controlled by Georgian Dream, has refused to meet with the EU delegation on November 11, claiming that the reason for the refusal is "the unfriendly approach towards the Georgian Government and Georgian society, which has been manifested in several times from the governments of the delegations".

Many members of the EU delegation have criticized Papuashvili's refusal to meet with them./REL