Georgian PM compares European Parliament to “Soviet-era Supreme Council’

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has compared the European Parliament to the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union, criticising a resolution concerning Georgian Dream’s constitutional lawsuit against opposition parties.

Speaking to the press on Friday, Kobakhidze said the resolution and the debate surrounding it reflected a “serious crisis” within the European Parliament and the wider European bureaucracy.

“Through such actions, the European Parliament once again reminds us of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union,” he said.

Kobakhidze went further, arguing that the Soviet-era legislature had been in a better condition in the 1980s, during the final years of the Soviet Union, than the European Parliament was today.

He said calls for Georgia to adopt a different tone towards European institutions had become difficult to accept in light of the parliament’s latest debates and resolutions.

“When the European Parliament adopts a resolution of this kind and debates are held with such content, it is very difficult to make any positive comment - or even to refrain from making a negative one,” he said.

Kobakhidze added that, in his view, the Georgian public was no longer interested in such debates and documents.