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Georgia’s ruling party ‘instrumentalise’ conservative values to stay in power, expert says
FRANCE 24 English
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12/31/2024
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00:00
Well, for more on this now, let's speak to Tornike Gordadze, Georgia's former Europe
00:04
minister and a fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute.
00:08
He joins us now on the line.
00:11
Thank you for speaking with us, Mr. Gordadze.
00:13
First off, quite simply, your reaction to these new rules restricting contestation against
00:20
the ruling government?
00:23
First of all, Mr. Kavalashvili is not considered as a legitimate president by most of the Georgians.
00:34
He's called a de facto president by the Georgians.
00:37
And even when the EU or United States address him, they call him or the new prime minister
00:45
as the representatives of the ruling party Georgian Dream.
00:49
So his decisions are not considered as legitimate by most of people who are demanding, who are
00:56
asking for new elections.
00:59
Mr. Kavalashvili was chosen by this billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, to destroy any independent
01:08
institution in this country and to leave Mr. Ivanishvili as the only source of power.
01:13
Mr. Kavalashvili was a football player, as your journalist said before.
01:19
He has no education, no diploma.
01:24
His application was rejected when he applied to be the president of the Football Federation
01:31
of the country.
01:32
So his decision to sign these new draconian laws are not recognized as legitimate by people.
01:40
But it is clearly the copy of the repressive draconian laws that exist in Russia and Belarus,
01:48
and of course these laws and amendments aimed at destroying the protests that we see in
01:56
the streets of Tbilisi for two months now every day.
02:00
Even yesterday there was, yesterday evening, a huge rally.
02:03
And tonight most of the population of this city will celebrate the new year in the streets
02:09
of Tbilisi in front of the parliament and demanding again for new elections.
02:15
You were a Europe minister in Georgia.
02:18
Adhesion to the EU has a lot of popular support.
02:21
We mentioned it in our package earlier.
02:23
About 80% of the population is in support of it.
02:26
What happens to that movement now in the face of such repression?
02:31
The movement will continue, and people will staunchly continue to come and to rally every
02:39
day.
02:40
I'm not sure the regime is able to enforce all these draconian laws, because so far we
02:46
have 51 political prisoners since the rallies have started, people who are accused preparing
02:54
coup d'etat.
02:57
Some of them, you see, 18 years old kids or some very young protesters of 20, 24 years
03:04
old, some of them.
03:06
And they are facing charges that can, you know, they can be sentenced to seven, nine
03:13
years of prison.
03:14
But it didn't stop Georgians from rallying.
03:18
And if the regime continues arresting people, it will bring more people in the streets.
03:23
That's why I'm doubting how they will be able to implement all these amendments that
03:31
they brought to the law.
03:33
Just for the formal side of this, of this event, Mr. Kavalashvili was given a few hours
03:39
to read 28 new amendments that were prepared for him.
03:44
I'm sure he even didn't read it, considering the speed he can also, I know, in reading
03:52
documents or understanding them.
03:54
And one of the representatives of the ruling party, when he was asked, did the president
04:00
really read all these 28 amendments?
04:02
He said, ironically, yes, he read and even he understood them.
04:07
So you see the tragic, tragicomic situation in Georgia regarding this new self-proclaimed
04:14
president.
04:15
We mentioned the man backing the Georgian Dream Party and the new president, the billionaire
04:21
oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, Bedzina Ivanishvili.
04:26
What can you tell us about him more than what we know?
04:29
What are his real motivations here?
04:31
Is he a real staunch defender of conservative values, as Georgian Dream Party professes
04:37
that he is?
04:38
Or what are their economic motivations behind, behind his actions?
04:45
Look, when it comes to the values, this party, Georgian Dream, has started in 2011, 2012
04:52
to be a left-wing populist party.
04:55
They were promising free money for everyone, raising salaries and pensions, etc.
05:03
And in a few years' time, from the left, they became far-right party.
05:07
And now they are associated with AfD in Germany and Viktor Orban's far-right Fidesz party.
05:15
So the ideology doesn't really mean anything for them.
05:18
The only reason they are now conservative is because they lost the support of all mainstream
05:26
forces and in their populist stance now they criticize the European Union and they try
05:36
to scare Georgian population, saying that our European Union means LGBT rights, the
05:44
same-sex marriage, war with Russia, etc.
05:48
So these conservative values are just instrumentalized by this government to keep power.
05:55
And Mr. Ivanishvili personally has ties with Russia.
05:59
He was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, Treasury Department, under the register of
06:06
Russia's, Russian influence agents.
06:10
So it shows clearly his ties with the Russian Federation and the Russia's influence on their
06:19
neighbors.
06:20
Tornike Gordadze, thank you so much for your insights.
06:24
That's all we have time for, unfortunately.
06:26
As a reminder, you are Georgia's former Europe minister and a fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute.
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