Georgia can turn its EU fortunes around, President Zourabichvili tells Euronews
A frayed opposition has banded together in a bloc that is projected to win some 60% of the vote in the October elections. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili told Euronews she hopes this will prompt Brussels to restart its membership talks with Tbilisi.
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00:00Georgia is heading towards a crucial legislative election on October 26.
00:07The South Caucasus country is polarized between a pro-Russian government and pro-EU public opinion.
00:14Georgia's head of state, Salome Zurabishvili, has proposed what she calls the Georgian Charter,
00:20which aims to align the country with the European Union.
00:25In view of the elections, we have a month left.
00:28Europe can do nothing but confirm that if the elections are won by pro-European parties,
00:35if the Charter is put into effect very, very quickly after the elections,
00:40as soon as the Parliament is formed, the first measures are taken,
00:44that the European Union says today that it will be ready to implement,
00:49it also to resume, I would say, the conversation where it stopped.
00:53Georgia's negotiations to join the EU were frozen last June
00:56after the ruling party adopted the so-called Foreign Agents Bill.
01:01Zurabishvili faces the challenge of coordinating parties that aim to join the EU
01:05but have contrasting political ambitions.
01:09It will be quite difficult to go immediately, and we do not have this habit,
01:12to a coalition government.
01:14So what I propose to them is to form a technical government
01:18charged with accompanying Georgia until the opening of the negotiations.
01:23These will be very technical issues to solve.
01:26The program is known, it is the program of measures that are to be taken
01:30to meet the various European recommendations.
01:36Meanwhile, caught between Russia and Iran,
01:38Georgia finds itself hosting migrants from both nations.
01:49There is not a growing number of Iranian migrants.
01:52There were periods when there were many more,
01:55who were attracted by investments in Georgia.
01:58And for a reason, by the way, that I do not know very well,
02:00there are many fewer today.
02:02Regarding the Russians who have just settled, there has not really been a conflict.
02:07It would undoubtedly deserve a little more careful monitoring by the authorities
02:14because in the number of these 60,000,
02:17there must surely be people who serve other interests than ours.