On April 9, Salome Zourabichvili, the fifth President of Georgia, delivered a speech at the Senate of the Czech Republic during her official visit to Czechia. She accused the Georgian Dream government of steering Georgia toward authoritarianism and urged Europe to respond decisively to the escalating political crisis in the country.

During her speech, Zourabichvili described the situation in Georgia as "a warning and a call to action," alleging that repressive government policies had brought the country "close to 1937"—a reference to the Stalinist purges—and toward a Russian-style autocracy. She criticized the European Union’s passive stance, stating, "If we fail to defend Georgia today, we may wake up tomorrow in a very different Europe." She emphasized that the crisis was not merely a domestic issue but a "European challenge to liberal democracy, geopolitical stability, and the EU’s global credibility."

Zourabichvili stressed that the dismantling of Georgian democracy was occurring "not with tanks but through laws—laws of repression." She expressed disappointment in Europe’s muted response, saying, "And yet, the response from Europe, from the European Union, has been too quiet." While acknowledging Georgia’s EU candidate status granted in 2023, she argued that the West had failed to take concrete action against the country’s democratic backsliding.

She warned that the repercussions of inaction extended far beyond Georgia’s borders, posing the question, "If democracy can be undone in Georgia in one year, what does that say about democracy’s resilience?" Zourabichvili cautioned that failure to respond would suggest democratic institutions are fragile and vulnerable to autocratic manipulation.

Highlighting geopolitical risks, she argued that Georgia’s potential slide into authoritarianism and Russian influence could undermine the European Union’s strategic presence in the region. She identified the threat as threefold: to liberal democracy in Georgia and Europe, to the EU’s geopolitical standing, and to its global credibility in relation to Russia. "If the European Union cannot protect the values it has spent decades promoting," she stated, "its foreign policy credibility is at risk." She added, "Rearmament without the will to act is just strategy on paper. It is not deterrence. It is not power."

Zourabichvili accused Russia of executing a "hybrid strategy of silent conquest" in Georgia, replacing military aggression with institutional capture, election manipulation, propaganda, and oligarchic proxies. "What it failed to achieve with tanks in 2008, it is now attempting with a new formula," she warned, noting that this model could be exported to Moldova, Romania, or other parts of Europe due to its cost-effectiveness and the lack of external resistance.