Georgian Parliament Speaker: responsibility for any violence on October 4 will lie with those showing solidarity with perpetrators

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday warned that if any act of violence occurred on October 4 - the local self-government election day -, responsibility would rest not only with the perpetrators but also with those expressing solidarity with them.

In his remarks, Papuashvili stressed that it was already clear that violence was being planned by the opposition United National Movement party.

The speaker further accused the European Commission’s spokesperson of publicly expressing solidarity with this “planned violence”.

“If even a single act of violence occurs on October 4, those who show solidarity with the perpetrators will be held responsible. We will not allow anyone - including any bureaucrat in Brussels - to drag Georgia back to the 1990s”, Papuashvili said.

“Today everything is already clear. It has been publicly announced that violence is being planned by the United National Movement, and we have seen that the European Commission’s spokesperson expressed solidarity with the violence planned by the United National Movement. This is an astonishing scandal - when the spokesperson of the European Commission publicly shares responsibility for the violence announced by the United National Movement”, he continued.

The Speaker further reiterated that everyone, both inside the country and abroad, should clearly understand that any act of violence on October 4 carried out by the United National Movement, its rally organisers, or participants would not rest solely on their shoulders, pointing out that the European Commission, through its spokesperson, shares responsibility for such violence, and likewise the European Union Delegation to Georgia, which has made no attempt to distance itself from the matter.