Parliament official slams European Parliament for “double standards” on hate speech

Giorgi Chakvetadze, the First Deputy Chair of the Education, Science and Youth Affairs Committee, on Friday criticised the European Parliament’s recent statement, calling it a clear example of “double standards”.

Chakvetadze’s remarks came in response to the European Parliament’s declaration, stating that “hate speech poses a serious threat to democracy and the rule of law”.

“It is one of the most striking double standards - how can you urge a country to reject hate speech while simultaneously funding hate speech in other countries?”, the official said.

He further added that Georgia was one of the victims of this.

“Since the 2020 parliamentary elections, our country has suffered repeated attempts at revolution funded from abroad. Each of these attempts is doomed to fail, just like the overall hate campaign”, Chakvetadze noted.

“Hate speech is unacceptable to us, and apparently to European bureaucrats as well - yet they continue to provide opaque funding that fuels various destabilising scenarios in Georgia”, he concluded.