1. On Sunday, October 26, the Georgian Dream party won a landslide victory for the 4th time since 2012
With more than 54% of the votes, the governing Georgian Dream party won a landslide victory in the Georgian parliamentary elections. This was the second time in Georgia’s modern history that a party was supported by more than one million people or over half of all the voters. The party is expected to win 89 seats, about 60 percent of the 150 seats in parliament, which means a comfortable majority and a stable government in the upcoming term.
2. Although the elections were democratic, an unprecedented attempt at incursion has been launched by the opposition and the EU to challenge the results
The election was monitored by dozens of international observers, delegated by EU member states and international organizations. The joint statement of the International Election Observation Mission led by the European Parliament, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, OSCE ODIHR, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Council of Europe, stated that the elections were well-organized and orderly, “offered voters a wide choice with 18 candidate lists”, contestants “could generally campaign freely” and that the “legal framework provides an adequate basis for democratic elections”. At the request of the EU and OSCE, for the first time this year, some 90 percent of votes were cast electronically, minimizing potential fraud. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also stated that “Georgian people embraced democracy” through the election.
A group of opposition-affiliated NGOs called WeVote claimed that a systematic scheme of ‘mass election fraud’ by the Georgian authorities was organized during the elections, claiming a widespread use of multiple voting. Opposition parties rushed to denounce the results of the elections, but it was the president who made the most serious accusation. Salome Zourabichvili stated that the results of the elections cannot be accepted, which she viewed as the result of a “Russian special operation”, however, she failed to provide any evidence or meaningful arguments corroborating her claims. She called for people to take to the streets and fight the election results.
Some European Union member states also echoed the opposition accusations. The Estonian foreign minister implied that the Georgian Dream party falsified the election results for Georgia to fall back into Russia’s arms, while the Lithuanian foreign minister stated he found it hard to accept the results and called for an international election inquiry. The EU also called for probes. In a joint statement made by the European Commission and High Representative Josep Borrell, the bloc has urged the Georgian authorities to “swiftly, transparently and independently” investigate reported irregularities in the parliamentary elections. This is an unprecedented interference by Georgia’s own European allies and a violation of Georgia’s sovereignty.
The Georgian government is not pro-Russian; it doesn’t even have official diplomatic ties to Russia since 20% of the country’s territory is under Russian occupation. Georgians, however, remember the deadly Russo-Georgian wars of the past century, the last one as recently as in 2008, and understand that they cannot rely on the military support of the West in case of Russian aggression. The Georgian Dream party offered economic and political stability, and pragmatic ties with the country’s neighbors, among others, Russia, limiting the risk of an escalation to the conflict – this is what the Georgian people have voted for.
3. Hungary was among the first to recognize the election results and the Hungarian PM made an official visit to Georgia post-election
Thanks to the modern electronic voting system in Georgia, over 95 percent of the votes had been counted by the evening of the election day, thus Georgian Dream’s victory swiftly became evident. After the Armenian prime minister and the president of Azerbaijan, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán was among the first heads of government to congratulate his Georgian counterpart on the election results. He was also the first European politician to visit Georgia after the elections, on the 28th of October, to hold bilateral talks with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. He highlighted that international observers described the elections as free and fair, which gives a strong political mandate for the government. He congratulated the country’s leadership for enforcing pro-European politics while not letting Georgia become “a second Ukraine”.
Just like Viktor Orbán’s Peace Mission to Ukraine, Russia, China, and the United States this summer, the prime minister’s visit to Georgia was condemned by many in Europe. The European Commission’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, Peter Stano, was quick to assert that the prime minister’s visit to Georgia was purely bilateral and he does not represent the EU Council, the rotating presidency of which is held by Hungary. The foreign ministers of fifteen EU member state – Germany, France, Poland, and Czechia, among others – criticised in a joint statement Orbán’s “premature” visit to Georgia and stressed that the prime minister does not speak on behalf of the EU.
4. Hungary strongly supports Georgia’s accession to the European Union, which is reflected in the program of Hungary’s EU Presidency
Hungary has long been an outspoken supporter of Georgia’s accession to the European Union. The Hungarian Presidency of the European Council believes that it is essential to keep EU enlargement policies balanced and credible in order to shake up, or even maintain the policy’s momentum. The Georgian Dream party has been a trustworthy partner of the EU and a forerunner in meeting accession criteria. The EU-Georgia Association Council has welcomed the progress made with regards to human rights, freedom of expression, and gender equality. Georgia is a regional leader in anti-corruption measures, as evidenced by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, in which Georgia outpaced several EU member states. The Georgian state budget is the most transparent globally. The government has even changed the overpowered super-presidential system to parliamentary democracy and has introduced a fully proportional parliamentary voting system in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission. That is why Hungary has strongly objected to Germany’s decision to freeze Georgia’s EU accession process on accounts of alleged democratic backsliding and supports the return to accession talks. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has reaffirmed the Hungarian EU Presidency’s aim to foster this process, so that Georgia may join the European Union by the end of this decade. That is why the Hungarian administration has sent experts to Tbilisi to help Georgian officials speed up the accession process.
5. Western policy in the South Caucasus is backfiring, hence the Hungarian government’s call to normalize ties between Georgia and the West
Following a decision by the European Parliament in early October, the European Commission has withdrawn €121 million in aid from Georgia, citing alleged democratic backsliding by the Georgian Dream party. The United States imposed sanctions on representatives of the ruling party and indefinitely postponed military exercises with Georgia. The sanctions regime, however, is destined to backfire. No U.S. or EU sanctions are likely to change the Georgian government’s policy on defending Georgia’s sovereignty and conservative social values. Moreover, when Georgians find that their hard-earned candidacy for EU membership has been frozen by Germany, and that the U.S. has indefinitely postponed joint military drills with Georgia despite a looming Russian aggression in the post-Soviet space, they will lose whatever trust they have left for their future in the Euro-Atlantic bloc. It is time for decision-makers in Washington and Brussels to remember the lessons of history, and how sanctions on Cuba, Iraq or Iran, have previously failed to achieve their ends.
The European Union must realize that inconsistent and meritless enlargement practices are destroying its credibility: skepticism towards the EU is growing, most strikingly among the youth in the Western Balkans countries, but in Georgia as well. Allegations of democratic backsliding with regards to the Georgian Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence are especially cynical, when we see that the EU is turning a blind eye to another candidate state banning eleven political parties, postponing elections despite the expiry of the president’s term, blatantly repressing freedom of speech, banning opposition TV channels, and forcefully drafting journalists critical to authorities, banning churches, musicians and books, permitting the destruction of dozens of cultural memory sites, etc. It is time for the EU to embrace a consistent and merit-based enlargement and neighbourhood policy, and start accession talks with Georgia.
Written by Péter Pál Kránitz