Lelo’s Gegelia: We should never have missed moment last autumn; that was stupid; let us clear our minds

“Two or three months ago, certain people were insisting that the opposition should not contest elections at all. Those same people were calling electoral participation a “Russian special operation.” Had Péter Magyar followed that logic, the boycott doctrine that was peddled throughout 2025, Viktor Orbán would still be sitting in the Hungarian prime minister’s chair today,” said Grigol Gegelia, member of Strong Georgia–Lelo, speaking live on PalitraNews.

He described this as “a bitter, but straightforward truth.”

“Péter Magyar entered an utterly one-sided fight. Eighty per cent of the media belonged to Orbán. Tens of billions were Orbán’s. For sixteen years, the entire political system had been engineered around a single party. The judiciary was under Viktor Orbán’s control. Hungary had been privatised and handed to one party,” Gegelia stated.

He also turned his fire on the Georgian opposition itself, arguing that a pivotal opportunity had been squandered last autumn.

“The moment that presented itself last autumn should never have been let go. Forgive me, but that was sheer stupidity. Local elections don’t change a government, but if the regime had lost five cities, it would have sustained a very serious crack,” he said.

When the programme’s host asked whether early elections might be called and what strategy the opposition had for 2028 to replicate Magyar’s success, Gegelia responded that the opposition must learn its lessons for the future.

“The opposition must, first of all, stop chanting that nothing will ever change through elections. That is Bidzina Ivanishvili’s favourite slogan. The democratic forces of Georgia bear their share of responsibility for the fact that today we sit in a city governed by a 20%-rated nonentity. I cannot stop saying it. They still seek to lecture and correct me, but it doesn’t work that way. Moving forward, we must learn from our mistakes and use every tool at our disposal. They say let Hungary’s water wash over us, I say let it clear our minds. The very people now singing Magyar’s praises are the ones who were telling us: ‘If you go into elections, it’s a Russian plot; what’s the point of a rigged system?’ Now they like Magyar. Let us settle, once and for all, which path we actually believe in. My political team believes in Magyar’s path, and so do I. It is hard, it is gruelling, but tell me, do you remember the last time there was an unrigged election in this country?” Gegelia stated.