Council of EU call for “constructive cooperation” refers to opposition - Georgian Parliament Speaker

Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Wednesday said the calls by the Council of the European Union to Georgian political actors to ensure “constructive cooperation” for the country’s European integration “primarily refers to the destructive wing” of domestic opposition. 

In his press comments, the official claimed a “significant part” of opposition parties had been engaged “solely in destruction and obstruction” of the work for meeting conditions for receiving the bloc’s membership candidate status since the European Council outlined the priorities in June 2022.

Pointing to the refusal of major opposition groups to join the Government's work in meeting the reform agenda, Papuashvili accused them of “impeding progress” through initiating “parallel processes” and “dissuading” EU officials and representatives from the bloc’s member states from granting the status to Georgia. 

The opposition consistently obstructed these efforts. Hence, the appeal for constructive engagement is primarily directed towards them because, unfortunately, their actions in Parliament have been marked by nothing but destruction and obstruction over the past year and a half", he said. 

The lawmaker also reacted to claims by Lelo opposition party that hiring of Israeli strategic advisors, Moshe Klughaft and Miri Michaeli, by the ruling Georgian Dream party for the parliamentary elections next year was “coming from the Russian propaganda book” and would lead to “intensified use of hate speech” in the campaign season. 

Papuashvili rejected the allegations as “disinformation” and pointed to the advisors’ “successful work in several countries”, stressing the opposition was “demonising itself” by making “permanent mentions of Russia” in its statements, “inciting violence” and acting “against national interests”.