Georgian PM offers youth to participate in “public discussions” on transparency law

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday offered the youth participating in demonstrations against the domestic law on transparency of foreign influence to select 10 representatives and participate in “public discussions” on the controversial law.

In his social media message, Kobakhidze suggested having a “healthy discussion” on the backdrop of “significantly reduced level of violence” from protesters at recent demonstrations against the law.

It is unlikely that reduction of violence was a decision made by these people. Therefore, we should think it is the merit of those young people who did not participate in the protests for political reasons, but who sincerely believe the law could create an obstacle for the European integration of our country. We should think that in the end, it was them who had given to the rallies an acceptable and peaceful form”, Kobakhidze said.

The future of Georgia belongs to the youth. Our country has an exemplary, exceptionally bright and progressive youth, and they should take over the management and development of this country in the future. This country must be run in the future by young people who support or oppose the transparency law today”, he said.

Kobakhidze further stressed that meeting young people and discussing important matters was a “special honour" for him, adding he was “ready” not only to hear from them, but also to share their remarks, expecting the same attitude from them as well.

The PM also said the ruling team was “completely open all this time” to discuss the law, and noted his Government had also offered foreign ambassadors in the country, who “rudely interfered in the internal political and legislative debates” of the country to join public discussions regarding the legislative piece, but the ambassadors avoided the public discussions, adding that “representatives of their countries continued making rude statements devoid of arguments”.

In exactly the same manner, representatives of the [domestic] media belonging to the radical opposition avoided a healthy discussion. All this is a sign that there are no arguments against the law and our opponents are motivated by the only objective to somehow conceal the information about the funds of [domestic] NGOs from Georgian citizens”, he continued.

The official added many people who had previously thought otherwise about the law had already realised that the legislative piece was “not Russian at all”, noting they also realised “it will not hinder Georgia's European integration either”.

Many would also remember that they were blackmailing us from the outside in exactly the same way, when we were asked to join the [Russian] sanctions [amid the war in Ukraine] and to destroy the country’s economy, to send combat volunteers to Ukraine with official approval from the Georgian Government and to drag the country into military conflict, to disrupt the judiciary and the Central Election Commission, to release supposedly dying [imprisoned former President] Mikheil Saakashvili, to release Nika Gvaramia, [founder of the Georgian-based Mtavari Arkhi TV and Ahali opposition party] from prison, to release [wanted former official] David Kezerashvili, they demanded the punishment of Bidzina Ivanishvili [founder and Honorary Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former Prime Minister of Georgia]”, Kobakhidze said.

“However, everyone remembers that we did not agree to any of these insulting demands and we still received the EU membership candidate status. If we show the same dignity in the future, we will certainly achieve results in all directions, including Georgia's integration into the European Union”, he concluded.