Ruling party official says visa liberalisation insufficient pressure, warns of “additional measures” against Georgians

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Saturday issued a sharp response to a recent European Parliament statement, which asserted that “Georgia will not be able to join the European Union until its Government changes its authoritarian course”.

In a social media message, Mdinaradze directly challenged the European Parliament's stance, drawing a stark contrast with past narratives and implying a shifting set of demands from the EU.

“Last year, they told us that we refused the EU accession process, and they fuelled protests with this. Now it turns out that it’s the fault of authoritarian governance, and we urgently need to change course”, the ruling party official said.

He noted that the message was clear - Georgia must abandon its national path and adopt a foreign model of governance, similar to that of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Now everything is clear. What is needed for this? We must change the current form of governance and establish one like Saakashvili had. The “beacon of democracy” shouldn’t have been extinguished so harshly, and we must correct this. In principle, it will be difficult for us, but agents know better how to arrange this, and fair elections imply bringing them to power. We must join the CIS and have an economy like Moldova’s. We must have the same relationship with Russia as Ukraine does - an open war. We must abandon family values and similar Georgian-national whims, as they directly wrote to us a few days ago. In this case, the European Parliament’s statement will be completely different - moreover, positive and supportive”, he noted.

Mdinaradze further added that the Georgian people were resilient and would never renounce themselves, regardless of the external blackmail or pressure imposed through the visa liberalisation mechanism.

“Blackmail through visa liberalisation alone, as it seems, isn’t working; additional measures are needed against the Georgian people, who have never renounced themselves - everyone will have to come to terms with this! Today, the radicals have announced a rally, which despite two weeks of preparation, was practically a failure, and something was needed to ‘boost’ it. What a surprising coincidence this statement is”, Mdinaradze concluded.