TBILISI, October 16. /TASS/. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili shows no intention to resign even though the Constitutional Court has found she is in breach of the Constitution.
"I am not going anywhere. I am not resigning. I will stay where I am, where I have belonged throughout my life. I came here [from France] and stayed here for the sake of fighting for the European future of our country and democracy," Zurabishvili said in a televised address.
Speaking about the Constitutional Court’s ruling to the effect her foreign visits without the government's consent were unconstitutional, Zurabishvili said that she felt greatly upset and the judges should be ashamed of having produced such a verdict. Zourabichvili is going to attend the session of parliament when the impeachment motion will be voted on.
The Constitutional Court’s presiding judge, Merab Turava, earlier read out a ruling Zurabishvili had violated the Constitution by making working visits to European countries without the government’s permission. The CC upheld the impeachment motion. Its decision will now be put to the vote in parliament. Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said earlier the voting was due by the end of this week.
In early September, Zurabishvili toured Berlin, Brussels and Paris, where she held high-level meetings. Later, it turned out she had done so without the government’s approval. The ruling party Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia accused Zourabichvili of violating the Constitution and launched impeachment proceedings. Zurabishvili will be impeached, if the motion gains 100 votes in a 150-member parliament. The ruling party has 84 seats.