Mister President,

Your Excellencies,

Dear friends,

I came here to thank you all - the EPP family - a family based on the very values that have built the European Union, the values of freedom and responsibility, democracy and tolerance, market economy and meritocracy - the values in which I believe so strongly, and which have inspired my government for the past 9 years.

I want to thank you all for your continuous support of the young Georgian democracy, especially you, President Martens, for your personal leadership, your permanent help and your invaluable friendship  and, beyond you, all of those who came to Georgia during these years and helped us on the long and difficult path we have chosen – the edification of a European democracy in the Caucasus -  especially Luca Volante, Arnaud, Elena Basescu, Christopher Lisek and all of the other people in the European Parliament, who came to Georgia in order monitor our recent Parliamentary elections.

I also want to thank Viktor Orban who’s party inspired us from the beginning of our political existence, and who came to address the rally just two days before our Parliamentary elections and told them that the Hungarian people once made this mistake to go back, please don’t make the same mistake in your country again, and unfortunately his advice was not heeded.

Of course, we would have preferred the outcome of these elections to be slightly different but people who aim at building a democracy should expect to be successful one day, unsuccessful another day, and look to be successful  the next day. So this has just happened to us.

The very fact that - in Georgia – the political orientation of the government and the future of the nation are decided through free and fair elections, not through violence anymore, is a testament to our success.

I heard that our neighbor to the north was very happy and indeed what I heard was that Vladimir Putin, whose troops occupy 20 percent of my territory, said he was extensively commending our elections, he was waiting for our elections, he was happy with the outcomes of our elections. Well, I can tell him that his happiness is premature because the very precedent on his borders that the government is changed through elections, through a free and fair democratic process, is not good news for anybody who would like to have authoritarian rule kept in their own countries. From that point of view Georgia has set a very important precedent.

In few days, as a result of a mostly peaceful transition, a new majority will seat the Parliament and another political force will be in charge of most of the executive powers: this looks – I am sure - like a natural process to the vast majority of the delegates, but not to our region and not certain to my country. Now, every democracy is a process, we say we made an important step in democracy, but we cannot say we have full democracy unless there is another election after this, unless there is at least two changes of power in this way. We’ve seen many people coming in during the free elections and forgetting to leave. So now it’s up to all of us. We’ve made the first step, but to keep this thing intact we need you. We need your persistent support and we need your persistent monitoring.

I remember how virulent the attacks were, and how much energy and talent you have shown in defending the reform process led by the United National Movement, and the aspirations of the Georgian nation to join the family of European democracies.

I want you to stay firm, I want you to stay on our side, we want your help with NATO.   Because of division several  years ago, we failed to get a membership  action plan. We need  it now, because of the new government ..  we told the new government  that we will help them in every way we can, and we need you to keep the Georgian democracy going.

Our slogan is now more Europe, and what a wonderfull slogan it is !

I wanted to thank all of you. The United National Movement is counting on you. The Georgian democracy and the future of our nation is counting on you, We are as European as ever, we are more commited Europeans than ever, we are more enthusiasthic than ever,  we are Georgian Europeans, we are enthusiastic Europeans, and  I firmly believe in this. We need you to keep the Georgian  European democracy going for the years to come. Thank you so much for your help