Archil Gorduladze: We do not have the right to leave future generations a state whose constitutional foundations will be unprotected – by banning the “National Movement” and its offshoots, democracy will protect itself

We do not have the right to turn a blind eye to specific facts, to forget the heavy experience of the past, the coordinated actions in the present, and to leave future generations a state whose statehood and the foundations of its constitutional order will be unprotected. That is precisely why the actions of the “National Movement” and its offshoots must be assessed as unconstitutional and they must be banned, – this was stated by one of the representatives of the plaintiff side – “Georgian Dream,” Archil Gorduladze, while presenting the lawsuit on the ban of opposition parties at the Constitutional Court.

According to Gorduladze, by banning these parties, democracy will protect itself, and people in Georgia who respect the decisions of the people and desire a better future for our country will have greater opportunities to engage in political activity.

“The political parties presented here, after 2012, jointly and separately, have directly violated the Constitution of Georgia. Accordingly, after 2012, due to the direct commission of these actions, all parties are, of course, subject to a ban. In addition, the political parties created after 2012, whose leaders were not members of the ‘National Movement’ before 2012, although they cannot be direct participants in the criminal acts and the overthrow of the constitutional order committed in 2003–2012, nevertheless these political parties created after 2012 do not distance themselves from the systematic and systemic crimes committed by the inhumane regime in the period before 2012. Not only do they not distance themselves, but they even enter into a coalition with the creators of that regime, about whom I spoke above. This unequivocally means that the parties created after 2012 agree with the systemic and systematic violations of human rights by the authorities that were in power at that time, and in the event of coming to power there is a real threat of the same being repeated by them. Article 23 of the Constitution of Georgia precisely in the case of the existence of such a threat provides for the possibility of banning political parties. Accordingly, the political parties created after 2012 must also be banned on the basis of the existence of these legal grounds. The constitutional lawsuit points to numerous unconstitutional actions which various so-called parties acting with a single intention either commit together or separately, but each of these facts applies to all the parties. The facts presented make it clear that the essence of the issue is not only an assessment of the past; this is a decision, among other things, on whether we will allow the previously committed acts, which were expressed in the overthrow or violent change of Georgia’s constitutional order, the encroachment on the country’s independence and other actions directed against the constitutional order, to continue in the future as well. The circumstances presented reveal the common aspirations of the unconstitutional parties, which were, are and will be an existential threat to Georgia’s statehood. We do not have the right to turn a blind eye to these facts, to forget the heavy experience of the past, the coordinated actions in the present, and to leave future generations a state whose statehood and the foundations of its constitutional order will be unprotected. That is precisely why the actions of the ‘National Movement’ and its offshoots must be assessed as unconstitutional and they must be banned!” Gorduladze stated.