Irakli Kobakhidze: No healthy force can succeed in artificial bipolar system; new political actors emerge when vicious circle is broken

“Work is ongoing on the lawsuit; the exact list of parties will become known in a few days when the lawsuit is officially submitted to the Constitutional Court,” Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated in an interview with Georgian Public Broadcaster.

According to Irakli Kobakhidze’s explanation, the lawsuit concerns parties composed of people who represented a bloody regime and those who, alongside this bloody force, engaged in sabotage against the state for years.

“We’ll specify the list later. Moreover, work on the lawsuit is still ongoing. The precise list will be revealed in a few days, once the lawsuit is officially filed with the Constitutional Court. The principle is as follows: first, when a party consists of people who represented a bloody regime, naturally, the relevant lawsuit will apply to them. To put it simply and directly, those who once represented the government and are now leaders of specific parties, namely the United National Movement, Ahali, and several other smaller parties. The second criterion is that those who, alongside this bloody party, this force, engaged continuously in sabotage against the state for years, naturally, this lawsuit will apply to them as well. The exact list will become known in a few days; there may be up to 10 parties, we’ll see, including small parties,” the Prime Minister stated.

According to the Head of Government’s assessment, this is the only path towards healing Georgia’s political spectrum, because the space is locked.

“On one side is Georgian Dream, and on the other side is the collective United National Movement, a foreign agency. When such a bipolar system has been formed, no third force is given the opportunity to genuinely enter Georgian politics. An artificially closed circle has been formed; look at what they did in 2012. On the basis of an imposed cohabitation, they did precisely this: on one side is Georgian Dream, on the other side is a criminal political force with its entire spectrum, which expanded somewhat after 2012. This collective UNM has external support, this bloody, violent political force, and in such circumstances, when there’s an artificially imposed bipolar system, no genuinely healthy political force has the opportunity to achieve success in the political system. As soon as this closed circle is broken, truly a vicious circle is broken, and new political actors will immediately emerge.

Georgian Dream wins 54% in parliamentary elections after 12 years, and 84% in local government elections after 13 years. This happens because on the other side, our alternative is a criminal, bloody political force, a foreign agency. Society has understood this very well.

If there were a healthy political force on the other side, we might not win 54%, because genuine competition would emerge. What we are undertaking is not an initiative driven by personal or subjective interests; it is an objective effort rooted in the national interest to reform our political system once and for all, so that the rise of a figure from the collective UNM does not spell catastrophe.

A healthy political force may emerge from existing ones, and new political parties might appear. However, as soon as the space opens up, this process will progress naturally, and that is how it should unfold. Today there’s a closed circle: on one side Georgian Dream, the ruling party, on the other side a criminal political force, and here the choice is made easily,” Irakli Kobakhidze stated.