Mikheil Saakashvili's speech at PACE winter session

Mikheil Saakashvili's speech: "It is an immense honor and a great privilege to address you at such a crucial time for Georgian democracy.

Allow me first to express my deepest gratitude to the President of the Assembly, Jean-Claude Mignon for inviting me to echo in this room the European and democratic aspirations of the Georgian people.

As you all know, just three months ago, the first transfer of power took place through elections in the history of our nation.

Like in every democracy, majorities can change in Georgia according to the wishes of the voters, but our national strife for freedom and European integration goes beyond any political division, it is uniting us, constituting the essence of our young State and the identity of our old nation.

This is my main message today and I cannot think of a better place than this Assembly to deliver it.

The Council of Europe gathers all the nations of our continent around the principles and the values that have shaped the European destiny since the end of the Second World War, the values and principles that have torn down the Berlin Wall and led the European reunification, these values of freedom, human rights, political accountability and rule of law that the Georgian people are so attached to and that have driven my entire political life.

My first steps in politics and my main steps in life I have to say. I remember dividing my time between sleepless nights at the Library of the European Court on Human Rights, dreaming about the principles and the concepts that were forbidden in my collapsing world, and very active days chasing on my bicycle in the streets of Strasbourg a wonderful student coming from Netherlands, Sandra Reloefs, who became my beloved wife and who is sitting here today, smiling.

Nevertheless, the formulation of these requests by the Assembly has been instrumental: such signals coming from you deter the aggressors from going further in their aggression, they show to everyone that principles and values matter, they tell the victims that they are not alone and they remind the world what is so special about this institution and Europe in general.

I know that a resolution on the humanitarian situation in our occupied regions is being processed through the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons and I want to thank you in advance for supporting this resolution and all the efforts you make to help us overcome the tragic humanitarian consequences of the invasion, the ethnic cleansing and the occupation.

Nobody has interest in the failure of the new government and the new majority, because this failure would hurt the country in general.

This is my solemn pledge: let us work together to improve what can be improved in our democracy, let us focus on the principles on which we can agree on, the very principles that are at the basis of the Council of Europe and that all major political forces claim to respect, promote and defend in Georgia.

What is at stake is much more important than our respective political interests, much deeper than personal animosities or collective ambitions, what is at stake is the future of our democracy, and, beyond, the future of democracy in our region."