Georgian PM says opposition, “related organisations” “not giving country chance to calm down”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday told the country’s Parliament the domestic opposition and their “related organisations” have “led the country in an artificially created turbulence” and were “not giving it a chance to calm down”.

In his annual report to the legislative body, Kobakhidze said despite the ruling Georgian Dream party team winning the 2020 elections with 90 mandates, the opposition had refused to enter the legislative body, instead claiming the elections had been rigged.

He claimed developments later showed “they rigged the parallel counting data themselves”, as well as a number of other data published through non-governmental organisations.

The PM told lawmakers 2022 had also been “full of difficult events” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, with the Georgian opposition asking the Government to join the international sanctions against Russia and “send fighting volunteers to Ukraine with the official approval of the state”. 

“Their declared desire was to involve the country in the war, and this was said openly by both representatives of the political parties and leaders of other organisations related to them”, he alleged.

“[A]t that time the Ukrainian authorities had made a decision to recall their Ambassador from Georgia, this was also a very serious blow. Then, in June, we were denied the [European Union] candidate status, and we have not heard a single argument [for the reason] to this day”, the Government head added.

“[E]veryone knows very well that the situation in Georgia [...]was and is much better than in Ukraine and Moldova, as well as in Bosnia, although the respective countries were granted candidate status, and Georgia was not. You also remember that the opposition tried to use this event to organise a coup d'état in the country”, he claimed. 

The Prime Minister also said the alleged process had continued in 2023, before Georgia was granted the EU candidate status, telling MPs “for a year and a half, the country lived in conditions of artificial turbulence” and calling it “very bad and sad".