2016-08-24
The Government will countersign Presidential Ordinance on "Refusal to the Request to hold a Referendum", nevertheless, the Cabinet disagrees with the arguments provided to support this decision.
During today's Cabinet session the Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili indicated that an argument, according to which referendum cannot be held due to the breach of territorial integrity of the country, remains disputable.
"This statement is not correct and we disagree in the part of the reasoning of the said decision. However, due to the legislative omissions, the executive and legislative branches of the government shall adopt an amendment within 1 month, whereas adoption of constitutional amendment requires at least 2 sessions that will take up to three months. We fully share the desire of the initiators of the referendum that the phrase "Civil marriage is a voluntary union of a man and a woman in order to create a family" be recorded in the Constitution. Our political force was the initiator of said constitutional amendment. This process has already began," - Prime Minister indicated and noted that constitutional amendment will be introduced after the elections.
According to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, unfortunately, due to the boycott by various political forces in the current Parliament and other reasons, amendments were not finalized. Head of the Government hopes that after the elections respective amendment will be reflected in the Constitution of Georgia.
Prime Minister also outlined that an argument according to which striving to the Western civilization implied legalization of the same-sex marriage is a pure speculation.
"Georgian Dream" is apolitical force that fully combines western and national traditional values. Europe wants us this way and this is why Georgia is so valuable and precious for Europe - an entity that values traditional values. After the elections we will introduce respective constitutional amendment," - Prime Minister stated.
Prime Minister's Press Office