Gov’t addresses court to solve controversies with president over appointment of ambassadors

The Georgian Dream government has addressed the country’s Constitutional Court to make clear boundaries between its and the president’s rights to appoint or dismiss diplomats, following the accusations raised by the ruling party officials earlier this year that President Salome Zourabichvili had refused to approve several ambassadors nominated by the government.

 

The government believes that in the parliamentary republic the president has no right to refuse to appoint or dismiss any ambassador if the government is for the decision or does not accept this.

 

The chairman of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, stated last back in March of this year that between June and July last year and this year, the president, in total, did not sign the appointment of five ambassadors.

 

The Georgian presidential administration then responded by saying that “from January 1, 2021 to March 21, 2022, the government nominated 12 candidates for the post of ambassador and head of the diplomatic mission, with the president signing all decrees.”

 

The Georgian Dream raised the issue after the President stated in her annual speech in Parliament on March 14 that the Government was  against her trip to Brussels shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

The opposition suggested that the government and the ruling party were “punishing” the President for her decision to leave for the EU without the consent.