At a government meeting on November 18, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said it’s important for Georgia’s development that the “radical opposition” be weakened.
“You can see that the radical opposition is in a very difficult situation, and this situation is getting worse by the day, and it is important that the processes continue in this direction; it is important for the country’s unhindered development,” Kobakhidze said.
He added, “We remember that in previous years, when the radical opposition was getting stronger, the country’s positions were getting weaker [and vice versa]. He concluded, “Therefore, weakening the radical opposition is one of the important tasks for us to ensure the strength of our country and the development of our country in the right direction.”
He went on to say that “the opposition is in such a bad state that we would probably have pitied them”, except that, as he put it, they are “evil forces” and “people without a motherland”, insisting that weakening them could only be good for the development of the country.
PM Kobakhidze also commented on the letter from the opposition coalitions to the EU, in which the opposition leaders call on the Union not to recognize the legitimacy of the 2024 parliamentary elections and the new Parliament, and propose immediate steps such as the launch of an EU-led fact-finding mission to investigate the alleged electoral fraud; a clear statement that the EU integration process for Georgia is halted because of the government’s conduct of the elections; suspension of formal communication at EU level with the current government; freezing of technical cooperation mechanisms; suspension of 120 million euro in aid to the government and redirection of this aid to the civilian sector. It should be noted that the EU took all these steps in the above directions before the Georgian elections.
The joint letter from all four opposition political forces, which passed the mandatory five percent threshold in the October 26 elections, was sent to EU High Representative Josep Borrell and EU foreign ministers last week. It details the situation in Georgia and expresses concern about alleged electoral fraud.
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PM Kobakhidze compared the EU to Soviet Russia in the early of 20th century, invoking the figure of Sergo Orjonikidze, an ethnic Georgian, and notorious Bolshevik figure who is known to have played a key role in establishing Soviet rule in Georgia. Irakli Kobakhidze compared the opposition to Orjonikidze and Brussels to Moscow, saying, “You remember a letter Sergo Orjonikidze sent to Moscow a century ago, this is Sergo Orjonikidze’s letter a century later, only not to Moscow, but to Brussels.”
PM Kobakhidze also noted that “society is naturally disturbed” by the opposition’s actions, adding that “it is important to manage everything properly” as he thanked Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri for his work.
The Prime Minister claimed again the GD’s “landslide victory” and thanked the Georgian Central Election Commission and its leadership for “ensuring the conduct of the election to the highest standards.”
“We have an ambitious goal, which is reflected in the government’s program: after four years, we must bring our country to a completely different stage of development,” he concluded.
The banning of the opposition, which the GD called the “collective UNM” and which, according to the GD, includes all pro-Western opposition forces, was one of the main pillars of its pre-election campaign.
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