Georgian Parliament Speaker frames upcoming elections as choice between pro-independence Georgian Dream and anti-independence radical opposition

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday the upcoming local elections presented a fundamental choice between forces advocating for the country's independence and those he characterised as opposing it.

Speaking to journalists regarding the opposition's electoral plans, Papuashvili positioned the ruling Georgian Dream party as the champion of independence, while portraying the radical opposition as beholden to foreign directives.

The Speaker questioned the viability of the opposition’s electoral prospects, given what he described as their core promise to govern based on “instructions received from abroad”.

“The main complaint of the radical opposition against the Government is that we do not obey foreigners, and their main promise is that they will obey foreigners, the Estonian Foreign Minister, and govern Georgia according to the wishes and instructions of the Estonian Foreign Minister. Who would vote for such people?!” Papuashvili said.

He further questioned how the Georgian people could entrust a mandate to forces that, in his view, devalue the nation's hard-won independence.

“How can the people, who fought for independence and have been building the country for 30 years, entrust a mandate to them [the opposition]? They come and say that being Georgian means being incapable, that we can’t do anything, and that we must obey Rasa Juknevičienė and Brussels’ spokesperson?! This is the level to which they reduce the independence we achieved through blood. Today, the choice is between forces that support independence and those that oppose it. On one side there is the Georgian Dream, which supports and defends independence, and on the other side there is the radical opposition, which is against independence”, he concluded.