Parliament speaker: “radical” opposition campaigning for country not to receive EU membership candidate status

Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said the domestic “radical” opposition was campaigning against the country receiving the European Union membership candidate status.

Papuashvili claimed the opposition did not want to see Georgia granted the status by the bloc, saying “according to their logic” the move would “strengthen the government”.

The [opposition’s] logic is that giving the country [EU] candidate status will strengthen the government, and anything that strengthens the government is bad from their point of view, because they only want to weaken the government [...] elected by the people, and somehow, through disorder, regain the absolute power that they had years ago”, Papuashvili said.

The official also pointed out the opposition was engaged in attempts to “convince foreign partners” against granting the country the status.

“We see the radical opposition, which, instead of being engaged in contributing to the implementation of [EU] recommendations, is engaged in participating in various trips and convincing foreign partners that Georgia should not receive the membership candidate status”, Papuashvili continued.

We have the full support of our European counterparts and individual countries. I had the opportunity to talk to the chairs of parliaments of EU member states. We see that the only thing that damages this path [for the status] is the campaign of the radical opposition [making the call of] ‘Don't give the candidate status to Georgia’”, he concluded in his comments.