Georgian Parliament Speaker urges EU Ambassador to address EU funding of opposition activist accused of calling for political violence, mocking death of political figure

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday urged Paweł Herczyński, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, to respond to public concerns over EU funding of an opposition activist accused of calling for political violence and mocking the death of a Georgian political figure.

Papuashvili’s remarks followed a recent meeting between Herczyński and Anano Tsintsabadze, a member of Solidarity Fund PL in Georgia and an activist affiliated with the radical opposition.

In his remarks, the Speaker noted that it has become clear that “with the money of EU citizens, a person is being funded who calls for political assassination and cynically mocks the death of one of Georgia’s most prominent modern politicians, Levan Gachechiladze”.

He drew parallels with political discourse in the United States, accusing liberals of showing the same kind of cynicism toward the deaths of political figures.

“Unfortunately, we are dealing with people of the same moral type here in Georgia, and it is a fact that this individual is funded by EU citizens’ money”, Papuashvili said.

The Speaker further questioned why Ambassador Herczyński has remained silent after these issues became public

“Perhaps the Ambassador did not know initially that he was financing a person who calls for political murder and mocks a politician’s death, but he certainly knows now. The silence we see from Paweł Herczyński is worse than those statements themselves”, he noted.

Papuashvili argued that while EU-funded projects were often publicised and praised, there was an attempt to avoid accountability when beneficiaries of such funds were accused of extremist rhetoric.

“My wish is that instead of hiding from the Georgian people, Paweł Herczyński answers this simple question: does he intend to continue financing, with EU taxpayers’ money, a person who calls for political assassination and mocks human death?” he concluded.