Ruling party head claims “revolutionary scenario” behind “radical” opposition’s actions

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Sunday claimed a part of the domestic “radical” opposition and local non-governmental organisations had made plans this year to “stage a revolution” in the country while supported by “certain members” of the European Parliament, but had failed to materialise it.

Kobakhidze said the topic of whether Georgia would be granted the European Union membership candidate status had been considered by a part of the opposition and their lobbyists “not as a tool to bring the country closer to the bloc, but to organise a revolution”.

They had a revolutionary plan prepared for June, and they also had a revolutionary plan prepared for the end of this year, - however, many things have changed in our country, many things have changed around our country, and in such a situation, those people who blocked the country from being granted candidate status realised that it would no longer be profitable for them”, Kobakhidze claimed.

“In the end, they did not succeed in achieving the result that they had planned. Otherwise, of course, each of these steps had been calculated so that in the end we would not have been granted the candidate status and a revolution would have taken place on that basis”, the ruling party head continued. 

Kobakhidze also claimed President Salome Zourabichvili “at some point” had “become one of the components of the radical opposition”, and “was directly involved in the campaign against the country being granted the candidate status”.

The official alleged the “radical” opposition was pursuing its “anti-state” campaign “even now”, despite the fact that the European Commission recommended the European Council to grant the country the membership candidate status.