President and Public Defender of Georgia Urge Government to Prohibit Pro-Russian Party
President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili announced on July 5 that a year after pro-Russian, far-right mobs attacked 50 journalists and forced the postponement of the LGBT pride parade on July 5, 2021, the public is still waiting for the offenders to be brought to justice. On the basis of this fact, pro-Russian, violent, homophobic, and aggressive groups gained strength during this time period. In a Facebook post, President Zourabichvili declared, "It is utterly intolerable that they have become stronger in a country where Russia occupies 20% of the territory."
The President spoke to Alt-Info and its progeny, the Conservative Movement party, when she claimed that the growth of Russian-friendly far-right organisations was detrimental to Georgia's view of Europe. President Zourabichvili stressed, however, that outlawing such organisations in a democratic country requires sufficient legal arguments to ensure that freedom of speech and expression are not misused. She was referring to calls for the group's prohibition.
According to the Georgia Public Defender's Office, Nino Lomjaria offered a draught constitutional case to organisations that could file the action in the Constitutional Court on July 5 concerning the Conservative Movement party, a branch of the far-right organisation Alt-Info. The Public Defender stated, "The party must be outlawed because many of its earlier and current utterances carry indications of toppling the constitutional order, incite various sorts of strife, advocate violence or contain indications of violence, and serve as propaganda for war."
Lomjaria claimed in the statement that the group's leaders orchestrated homophobic pogroms on July 5, 2021, when far-right crowds assaulted more than 50 journalists, pursued LGBT+ activists and allies in Tbilisi, and caused the postponement of the pride march.
Read also: The Georgian Government Responds to Anti-LGBT Remarks Made by an Alt-Right Party