Levan Bezhashvili member of the parliament of Georgia from the United National Movement.
Right now, in Georgia, lawmakers from my party, the United National Movement, are boycotting the parliament.
For those who have been following Georgian politics for some time, this might seem like yet another episode in the country’s never-ending political drama. But for us, the situation is a lot more critical now than it’s ever been before.
Currently, over a fourth of the country’s lawmakers are refusing to take part in any legislative or committee work — that’s a large number for a country that once stood out as an “island of democracy” in a very difficult region.
We didn’t come to this decision lightly or on a whim, rather we came to it after months of mounting alarm regarding the condition of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who’s been sitting in a Georgian prison since October 2021.
Saakashvili’s health has deteriorated drastically. He’s lost 46 kilograms since his imprisonment began, most in the last few months. A team of international doctors found traces of arsenic and mercury in his blood. And medical experts have concluded that unless allowed proper medical treatment, his life is in danger.
Yet, the authorities have banned lawmakers from visiting Saakashvili. MEPs have been denied access as well.
The former president has just one request: to be allowed to receive proper medical treatment in Europe or the United States. It’s a plea that’s been backed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Moldovan President Maia Sandu, as well as many other politicians and human rights organizations, with the Polish government declaring that it’s ready to welcome Saakashvili for medical treatment.
Unfortunately, Georgia’s judiciary has refused to grant this request — a decision that many now see as a death sentence.
And all this coincides with rising anti-European — and even pro-Russian — sentiment in Georgia, which has failed to fulfill any of the 12 membership reforms the European Union asked the country to implement by the end of last year.
The ruling Georgian Dream party — and its informal leader, Russian-made billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili — has so far dodged every opportunity to advance EU-requested changes: There’s been no judicial reform, and controversial judges continue to be appointed despite challenges from civil society and the EU. The media is also being targeted, with journalist Nika Gvaramia in prison after being convicted of suspicious embezzlement offenses, and legal cases have been launched against the independent television channels TV Pirveli and Formula, threatening their future.
Still, our parliamentary faction has sought to advance reform, and we called for an emergency parliamentary session — but that was blocked.
Despite this, we’ve actively continued to work.
MP Khatia Dekanoidze has been agitating for Russia’s paramilitary outfit, the Wagner Group, to be designated a terrorist organization, and advocating for Georgia to support the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. MP Ana Tsitlidze has been working to get the government to improve conditions and support for autistic children. And MP Rostom Chkheidze has been campaigning for new school curricula to bring the country’s education system into the 21st century.
But the authorities’ decision on Saakashvili shows us one thing: Hoping for any kind of cooperation is pointless.
We should have seen it earlier. Despite widespread allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 election, we listened to the voices that asked us to enter parliament in order to “change the system from within.”
Then, when we continued our parliamentary work with the goal of setting up a special investigative commission to look into Saakashvili’s treatment, Georgian Dream began impeaching opposition MPs one by one, until the our numbers fell below the required mandate to create a commission.
Our presence in parliament now will only give further legitimacy to a government that rejects compromise or cooperation, a government that is dragging our country closer to Russia against its will. And it is this that we reject.
