Georgian PM highlights “importance of recognising sincere young people among insincere individuals” in protest rallies

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday addressed young people in the country with an open letter amid ongoing protests against the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence by saying it was “important to recognise the presence of sincere young people who genuinely believe they are contributing positively” by participating in the rallies among “insincere individuals”.

In his letter, Kobakhidze spoke about a collective image of a young protester he described as “an individual I have encountered frequently on Facebook posts, a sincere young man whom I have tried to understand, who is likely between the ages of 25 to 27 now and has been actively supporting various revolutionary efforts since 2020, seldom skipping any opposition activities”.

In [the parliamentary elections of] 2020, he voted for the [opposition] United National Movement [party]. On numerous occasions on Facebook, he emphasised that he does not align with UNM ideology, implying that he would not have supported a party with such leanings. However, his Facebook activity from 2020 clearly indicates his alignment with one of the factions within UNM - either European Georgia or Lelo”, he said. 

On the night of the elections, this young man was incensed upon hearing from the [opposition-leaning] Mtavari Arkhi TV Channel that the Central Election Commission had published election results ‘late’. He was among the first to attend the rally organised by the UNM, which culminated in an attempt to breach CEC premises. While he himself may not have directly participated in the attempt to breach the CEC, his presence at the rally served as tacit confirmation of the events that transpired”, the PM continued.

Kobakhidze further developed his idea by claiming the young man's outrage had “intensified upon hearing allegations” from the Mtavari Arkhi TV Channel and domestic NGOs.

However, after a few months, he discovered that both sources had lied, and the CEC had indeed published the results at the standard time. Despite this revelation, he didn't consider posting a rebuttal to the media outlet and NGOs. This highlights a concerning aspect of his loyalty to UNM - even falsehoods propagated by UNM, NGO and the referred media outlet are regarded as sacrosanct by them”, the PM noted.

In his message, Kobakhidze also referred to the case of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, an election watchdog, during the 2020 parliamentary elections, when he said the ISFED had “turned out to be involved in rigging the parallel vote tabulation”.

This honest young man was outraged when the CEC results were mistakenly counted in the parallel vote of [a domestic] NGO.  However, he didn't express his indignation further when the NGO admitted, five weeks later, that it was a parallel counting that was mistaken for the results of the CEC, and not the other way around. This sincere young man publicly denounced the election as fraudulent on Facebook and boldly labelled Tamar Zhvania [the then CEC Chair] as ‘the world's prime falsifier’. However, in the following months, he didn't issue any apology when Zhvania was appointed by the Americans to lead their primary election organisation in another country”, he said.

Kobakhidze also mentioned Georgia being denied the European Union membership candidate status in 2022 by saying “our sincere young man was among the first to attend the rally when Georgia was not granted the candidate status”.

“He squarely placed the blame on the authorities without questioning why Georgia was overlooked while Moldova, a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States that abstained from imposing sanctions on Russia and struggled with corruption and weak state institutions, received the status. He did not raise any queries even when the European Commission released its evaluation with detailed points a few months later, revealing that Georgia outperformed candidate Moldova and candidate Bosnia by a significant margin”, he noted.

The PM further urged “all sincere young individuals who may have veered off course” to “reflect critically on their past decisions” and “ensure they avoid similar missteps in the future”.