People's Power movement calls on West to distance itself from “destructive” Georgian opposition, its “violence”

People's Power, a movement composed of former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said Georgia’s partners in the West should distance themselves from “destructive opposition and violence” in the Georgian political spectrum.

In a statement following public protests in Georgia that resulted in withdrawal of a controversial bill proposed by the movement that called for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “agents of foreign influence” if they derived more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, the group criticised the “agitated campaign” against the bill.

The release said the criticism against the now-withdrawn draft only served the “interests of other countries” and the objective of leading Georgia “back to the path of war”. 

As soon as [the domestic forces] caused instability in the country through the young people protesting [against the bill], the issue of [opening] the second front [of the war in Ukraine] in Georgia was immediately renewed from Ukraine. We should all remember that the war in Ukraine is not over yet, and it is not far from us”, the statement said.

The members of the movement stressed there was “no greater concern [for domestic politics] than the peaceful restoration of the territorial integrity [of Georgia]”, but added “the [threat of a] new war faces us with [the prospect of a] new occupation, where we will not have a helper and a saviour again”. 

When we want to be a member of a stable West, the West must also distance itself from destructive opposition and violence in the Georgian political spectrum, and not the other way around”, the statement added.