Butikashvili: Banning Parties Will End Georgian Democracy

"Coalition for Change" member Giorgi Butikashvili said that if the Constitutional Court bans parties by ruling, Georgia will end its existence as a democratic country. He said this on the "360 Degrees" program on Palitranius, speaking about the processes of banning parties at the Constitutional Court.

According to Butikashvili, the country is moving toward autocracy, where pro-Western parties will be abolished and their place will be taken by pro-Russian parties. In his assessment, this is a transition to the stage of Russian-style rule.

In his words, "We are going through a historic event, when the country is being accused, including of starting the 2008 war, and we must set the historically correct version of what actually happened".

Butikashvili stated that, given the approach with which judges were selected, it is clear that parties will be banned. In his words, "We can keep a 1% hope that some judges will have enough state and human dignity and will not make this decision".

He called on citizens to take to the streets: "The streets must be filled with people! Strikes and whatever people have at hand, they must do it at this moment so that a Russian-type regime is not established here". According to Butikashvili, banning parties does not concern only parties, and people will be forced to choose between Ivanishvili and Shakarashvili.

In his view, the process of banning parties is the consolidation of autocracy. The immediate Western reaction will be that the country is no longer democratic and has moved into the sphere of influence of Iran, China and Russia, from which it is very difficult to exit.

Butikashvili noted that any group, be it a party, media or non-governmental organization, is on one horizontal line. On the same line, in his words, are also the people who were deprived of their choice and European future, whose product and gasoline were made more expensive, and who are now being announced price increases for gas, water and electricity.