TBILISI, October 2. /TASS/. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has sent a letter to Belgian King Philippe expressing regret that she will not be able to travel to Brussels due to a government ban and the Constitutional Court’s upcoming hearings on her impeachment, the presidential administration said.
"Unfortunately, the reasons are completely beyond my control. On the one hand, the unreasonable refusal of the government to my proposal to participate, and on the other hand, the consideration of the impeachment motion against me in the Constitutional Court, scheduled for October 3 and 4, make it absolutely impossible for me to perform my representative duty at this important event," the letter reads.
As Zourabichvili noted, she was talking about the Europalia Georgia festival, which will open in Brussels on October 4. European residents will be able to learn about Georgian culture at the festival. Works of Georgian artists will be presented. In her letter Zourabichvili apologized to the King of Belgium for not being able to participate and thanked him for holding an event dedicated to Georgian culture "in the center of Europe."
In early September, Zourabichvili visited Berlin, Brussels and Paris, where she held high-level meetings. Later it became known that the Georgian government did not give her permission for the visits, so the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party accused her of violating the Georgian Constitution and launched impeachment proceedings. In late September, she also visited the Baltic States without authorization.
The submission has already been sent to the Constitutional Court, which will hold its first hearing on the case on October 3. If Zourabichvili is proven to have violated the country's supreme law, the parliament will vote in favor of her impeachment. Zourabichvili will be removed from office if 100 out of 150 deputies vote to impeach. According to the Georgian constitution, the president can exercise representative functions in foreign policy only with the consent of the cabinet.