“Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-Europe state. Instead of useless lecturing, they need our support on their European path,” Orbán said in a post on X.
Georgia’s EU membership application was frozen earlier this year amid warnings of backsliding on human rights and repression after Georgian Dream pushed through a divisive package of Russian-style laws targeting civil society and the LGBTQ+ community.
Europe is still divided on its response to the Saturday election, with Brussels calling for an investigation into alleged wrongdoing and individual member states expressing concern.
The U.S., however, has taken a tougher line — having already imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream politicians and police officers for cracking down on peaceful demonstrations over the summer.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the foreign policy panel, said the ruling party’s actions had “severely compromised the standards for democratic elections.” They also threatened to push for new sanctions on Georgia, saying in a statement that “if needed, we will make additional changes to our bipartisan legislation, the Georgian People’s Act, to ensure that those responsible for fraud and manipulation of the election process are held accountable.”
The U.S. government has options at its disposal to punish Tbilisi, explained Michael Cecire, a former congressional staffer who now teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. “If fraud is indeed responsible for shifting the results of the election,” Cecire said, “Washington and Brussels should make it clear that [they] will move to hold those responsible accountable, and the aid and assistance posture will have to change accordingly.”
“We’re going to watch very carefully as events unfold in the next few days,” a senior U.S. government official told POLITICO. “Obviously, Georgian citizens have a right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and it’s going to be critical that the government fully respect [the] rule of law and fundamental freedoms.”
