During the Sunday sermon, Ilia II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, once again raised the issue that he had been repeatedly turning back to over the past few years: The Patriarch spoke out for restoration of the constitutional monarchy in Georgia.
According to Ilia II, “the constitutional monarchy will bring peace to the country.’
“Georgia is an ancient country with ancient culture. Perhaps, we should think about the fact that Georgia is the oldest monarchy. The king ruled our country with God’s help. Today, there are numerous cases worldwide, when a monarch reigns but doesn’t rule. This is called a constitutional monarchy. Naturally, this will not happen either today or tomorrow, but it is necessary to analyze our past, present and future,” Ilia II stressed during the Sunday sermon on 18 June.
It’s not the first instance that the Georgian Orthodox Church leader has been advocating restoration of the constitutional monarchy in the country. Until now, this theme was mostly limited to the witty jokes on Facebook social media, but this time it’s all different – the government officials actively engaged in a dialogue on restoration of the monarchy literally the day after the Patriarch’s statement.
According to the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgian Parliament Speaker, visited the Patriarchy on 19 June to meet with Ilia II.
Before meeting the Patriarch, he made a brief, but a rather meaningful, comment on the aforesaid: “”What His Holiness stated is the truth. In fact, the constitutional monarchy could bring peace to the country’s political and social life. We must take into account all factors, including our local peculiarities,” Kobakhidze said, adding that the constitutional monarchy and the president’s institute couldn’t coexist.
Earlier, some other representatives of the parliamentary majority group also approved this initiative: for example, Eka Beselia, a member of the parliamentary majority, termed this idea as ‘interesting’, while Gia Volsky, the Parliament Vice Speaker from the parliamentary majority group, argued based on the best practices of the Western European countries that the monarchy could bringing positive impact on the country. According to Mamuka Mdinaradze, the chairman of the ‘Georgian Dream’ faction, the constitutional monarchy will attach individualism, uniqueness and particular attractiveness to Georgia. Salome Zourabichvili, an independent MP close to the governmental circles, believes that the constitutional monarchy is the only way for Georgia to join the European family.
