Parliament Speaker claims opposition has had to “change pro-war rhetoric” due to “citizen outrage”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the Georgian public’s “outrage” by the domestic opposition's “actions over the past two years” as they “pushed the country towards war” amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine had forced a “change in rhetoric” in the parties.

Papuashvili claimed the change had come “on the advice of foreign handlers” in order for the parties to “gain the favour of citizens” ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

The main objective that has driven the opposition for the last 12 years is to come to power in order to pursue what they did before 2012. Being a puppet regime acting at the behest of foreign political groups or forces. This is their goal. They tried to disrupt the country by using the non-governmental sector, the media, they tried to put pressure on the Government, and every time they tried to somehow come to power with their propaganda and disinformation”, he claimed.

“The opposition met with citizens and received an [appropriate] answer. The Georgian citizens are outraged by what they have seen in the last two years, when the opposition directly pushed this country into war. That is why their rhetoric has changed. Most likely with the advice and recommendation of their foreign handlers to somehow mislead the citizens into thinking they are on the side of peace and prosperity”, he continued.

Papuashvili also commented on calls on the Government to impose sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine by saying that such calls had “no rational explanation”.

There was no rational explanation for the insistence on the imposition of sanctions, in the conditions when Georgia declared from the beginning that Georgia was committed to not giving anyone the opportunity to circumvent the sanctions”, he said.

The official further said “no one has given security guarantees to Georgia” in case of the Government’s imposition of sanctions on Russia.