Georgia is currently undergoing a constitutional crisis due to the disputed legitimacy of the October 2024 Georgian parliamentary election, which was conducted with significant irregularities and described by observers as "fundamentally flawed".
[36] The crisis continued with the unconstitutional self-convening of Parliament[37][38] and escalated with the decision of the ruling party to suspend preparations for EU accession negotiations,[1] which was seen as contradicting Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution.
[44][45][46][47] By 2024, former prime minister and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili was widely seen as the de facto ruler of Georgia, with most Georgian government officials and institutions following his orders, with the exception of President Salome Zourabichvili, who maintained her independent positions.
He stated that police violence was systematic and done under orders given by Zviad Kharazishvili [fr; ru], the head of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry and by Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, who according to Shaishmelashvili are close colleagues of one another.
[58] In late December 2024, Zourabichvili announced plans to create a council with broad participation to organise a re-run of the election,[59][60] as recommended by the European Parliament.
Lawyers and human rights activists stated that Article 86 (5a) of the rules for parliamentary procedures prevent electees from starting their mandates if the Constitutional Court is considering legal disputes about the election.
"[63] The 28 November announcement by Kobakhidze of suspending EU accession negotiations was widely seen as unconstitutional, with two hundred National Bank of Georgia employees declaring the suspension to be inconsistent with Article 78 of the Constitution.
[66] On 9 January 2025, Zourabichvili held a press briefing at her new office, stating that she would continue to work to solve the crisis, meeting people around Georgia and internationally.
[61] According to the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland) foreign ministers, the electoral irregularities and the violence against protestors, journalists and opposition politicians constituted democratic backsliding.
The third mistake in Jones' view was the 28 November announcement by Kobakhidze of suspending EU accession negotiations, which he saw as "the fatal error", "enrag[ing] a Georgian populace that for two centuries has believed it is Europe", and leading to a third round of intensified protests.
[1] Irakli Pavlenishvili of Unity – National Movement predicted on 3 January 2025 that Ivanishvili would not be able to "gather the critical mass that is necessary for even an authoritarian regime to function because ... a very large part of public servants are against establishing a dictatorship".
However, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the growing rivaling between the United States and its opponents, such as Russia and China, a pressure has been multiplied on countries pursuing the multivectoral policy.
Meanwhile, similarly to Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, the GD government increasingly adopted the sovereignist rhetoric, emphasizing the right to set its own policies independently.
At a meeting of Georgian ambassadors on 29 December, Kavelashvili, Shalva Papuashvili and GD-appointed prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that Georgia was continuing to progress towards membership of the EU.