Parliament Speaker condemns opposition’s “treacherous nature”, President’s “technical government” proposal

Georgia’s Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday condemned the “treacherous nature” of several domestic opposition groups, while also criticising the idea of a “technical government” proposed by President Salome Zourabichvili in case of the opposition gaining power in the October 26 general elections, labelling it “unconstitutional” and “foreign-influenced”. 

Papuashvili's press comments followed Zourabichvili’s announcement last week of planned consultations with opposition groups to discuss members of the potential technical government, claiming she had already selected a candidate for the position of the Prime Minister. 

The consultations are part of the President’s Georgian Charter, proposed on May 26, which calls for opposition parties that receive a mandate in the elections to commit to early elections in the fall of 2025 aimed at ensuring “free and fair elections” with a “technical, non-partisan government”.

Giorgi Gakharia, the leader of the For Georgia opposition party and former Prime Minister who joined the Charter in September, opposed the idea of early elections on Sunday, claiming the “main goal today is not a technical government. It is absolutely impossible and unacceptable to talk about extraordinary elections. Our primary task is to defeat both Georgian Dream and the [formerly ruling] United National Movement opposition in the elections”. 

In response, Papuashvili labelled Gakharia a “traitor”, recalling past controversies regarding his alleged alliance with the “radical opposition”. 

Gakharia has now betrayed the Charter - betrayal is so ingrained in him that within two days, he violated what he had signed”, Papuashvili claimed. 

He also highlighted the idea of a technical government had first emerged during the June 2022 protests in Tbilisi over European integration, characterising it as an “attempt to seize power unconstitutionally”. 

He further claimed the notion had now “resurfaced” through Zourabichvili “by those who are behind all such actions”.

The Speaker also addressed allegations from the opposition over the ruling party’s intentions to reintegrate the Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) through “initial recognition” of their independence, dismissing the claims as “hypocritical”. 

He accused opposition members of having previously “compromised Georgian territories” during the 2008 conflict with Russia. 

The opposition who are now speculating with the issue includes those who, in 2008, in an official letter from [then President Mikheil] Saakashvili to then-Russian President [Dmitry] Medvedev, proposed division of Abkhazia with Russia. These people, who have compromised our territories and toyed with the idea of confederation, now making claims, is pure hypocrisy”, Papuashvili claimed. 

The Parliament Speaker further criticised the opposition’s recent refusal to participate in a Parliamentary vote on a ruling party-proposed bill on “family values and protection of minors”, and argued their absence was a “strategic move to avoid expressing their position” due to their “fright of their foreign patrons and the Georgian people”, claiming “nearly a million” citizens had demonstrated in support of the law on May 17.