Georgian Parliament Speaker says EU Commissioner’s alleged “threat” against PM is “shocking”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the alleged “threat” from unspecified European Commissioner to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze over overcoming the President’s veto on the recently adopted transparency of foreign influence law was “shocking”.

Papuashvili’s comments followed the claims by Kobakhidze, who earlier today alleged that the EU Commissioner had “listed a number of measures” Western politicians might take in case of overriding the veto.

Kobakhidze claimed the official had made the comment while adding “You've seen what happened to [Slovak PM] Fico and you should be very careful”, in reference to the Government official being shot in the central Slovakian town of Handlová last week.

The PM [Kobakhidze] informed me about this [alleged threat]. It is shocking to bring attempted murder into [the conversation] in this context. [and] I cannot make any other comments on this matter”, Papuashvili noted.

The Parliament last week adopted the law, which requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” - determined by more than 20 percent of their funding coming from abroad - to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.