Parliament Speaker: foreign-funded civil society cannot serve interests of Georgian people

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday criticised the domestic opposition and certain civil society organisations for their reliance on foreign funding.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Papuashvili questioned the legitimacy of these groups claiming to represent the interests of the Georgian people while depending on financial support from abroad.

“If the opposition truly wants to represent Georgian society, they should convince businesses, citizens, or others to fund their activities. The fact that they rely on foreign money indicates that their work is not valued domestically and that they are engaged in harmful activities at the behest of foreign entities”, the Speaker said.

He further argued that civil society groups reliant on foreign funding cannot genuinely serve national interests.

“It turns out that the term ‘civil society’ is applied to those who are funded from abroad. And this is supposed to be our Georgian civil society? How can they claim to represent the will of the Georgian people if they are addicted to foreign money like a drug? This completely contradicts the very concept of societal representation”, Papuashvili continued.

“If they really want to represent the Georgian public or any part of it, they should convince businesses, citizens or others to pay money for their activities. No one really appreciates their work inside and everyone understands very well that they are harmful, dependent on foreign money, because the order for this harmfulness comes from abroad”, he said.

Papuashvili emphasized that America had already revealed what the Georgian Government had been saying for three years, that foreign money of American and EU citizens had been spent in various countries, including in Georgia, on violence, propaganda, disinformation, hatred, overthrowing the government, and anti-democratic steps.

​​He further questioned the European Union's response to these revelations, asking whether they would acknowledge and address the issue of foreign interference.