During his late night interview with the Georgian Public Broadcaster on May 22, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze reacted to the Venice Commission’s urgent opinion on the Foreign Agents Law, calling it “faltering” and accusing the Commission of “having rejected the professional dignity.”
During the interview, the Prime Minister defended the controversial bill and reiterated his accusations towards the Georgian President, the opposition, civil society and the Western partners for their alleged role in closing the space for “healthy discussions” around the law. PM Kobakhidze labeled the opposition’s stance on the bill as a “fight against transparency.”
Prime Minister Kobakhidze claimed that the Commission’s opinion is “full of absurd notes” and “lies” and lacks legal discussion. “But in the end, the public does not look at what the Venice Commission said, but where the truth lies, and this is one of the serious achievements we have had in these 2-3 years.” In this context, he argued that Georgia now is “as sovereign as never before” with its people cherishing the country’s independence more and more.
Among other things, during the interview the Georgian Prime Minister once again talked about the conspiracies of “two revolutionary attempts” in the past, and also called the Georgian Dream’s opponents a “collective United National Movement” that is ruled with “one hand”, seeing the Georgian Dream’s duty to expose this “truth” to the public.
As for the other issues, he also talked about the education policy in Georgia, accusing the former UNM government of collapse in this field, and said that the system needs “substantial” changes. In this regard, he said that “even more serious problems have been created in higher education systems. If we take TSU [Tbilisi State University], where I also teach, we have the worst overall picture. One factor is that a large number of professors are selected solely on political grounds. This means that they have a political bias, it’s clear whose side they’re on, and they don’t have enough qualifications”. He promised reforms and said he expects that these reforms will face resistance similar to the Foreign Agents Law…
More to follow…