Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, Irakli Kobakhidze, accused the “collective United National Movement (UNM) party, its NGOs and foreign patrons” of violence and declared that verbal and physical abuse had nothing to do with civic activism.

The GD Chair remarked on the recent assault on Zura Japaridze, leader of the Girchi-More Freedom party, and Misha Mshvildadze, one of the founders and host of the opposition television channel Formula.

According to Kobakhidze, violence is unacceptable. He blamed the opposition for making violence-triggering statements for many months publicly or through opposition TV channels, while ambassadors kept silent. He said the opposition declared a person who set fire to the police car a hero, while the US Ambassador assessed hate speech during rallies at Rustaveli Avenue as freedom of expression.

“Physical and verbal abuse is not civic activism. Everyone on both sides should understand this. Physical and verbal abuse has nothing to do with civic activism. It is the reality, and everyone should acknowledge it,” Kobakhidze stated.

The GD Chair went on to say that the UNM government was “built on violence,” and now NGOs, foreign patrons, and the fifth cologne are all engaged in violence “wrapped as civic activism.”

Irakli Kobakhidze pledged that everyone who tried to sow aggression, radicalism, and so on in Georgia would receive a non-violent response.