MP Kadagishvili: EU won’t touch visa liberalisation because Georgia is in the right

According to Irakli Kadagishvili, Chairman of Parliament’s Self-Government Committee, the European Union has adopted a position of vindictiveness towards Georgia.
In his words, a state cannot be held responsible for fulfilling its obligations and not allowing a thousand different revolutionary scenarios to unfold.

“Their assessments became unacceptable after they lost the 2024 elections. Since then, they have adopted a position of vindictiveness towards Georgia. Remember how they granted us visa liberalisation? They had no other choice. Back then, they didn’t say that granting candidate status was the Georgian government’s achievement because it had carried out reforms; instead, they said we’re granting status not to the Georgian government but to the Georgian people. So now let’s wait and see how they’ll strip the Georgian people of visa liberalisation.

It won’t be our responsibility, and why not? Because you cannot be held responsible for conducting transparent, democratic elections and winning. You cannot be held responsible for transparency, which is accepted everywhere in Europe, for example, that funding should be transparent. A state cannot be held responsible for fulfilling its obligations and not allowing a thousand different revolutionary scenarios to unfold. That is not a responsibility. That is a state’s duty.

You cannot hold a state responsible for the fact that you can establish a broadcaster without any bureaucratic barriers whatsoever. You cannot hold a state responsible for the fact that this state has not banned a single television channel, has not appropriated any, and on the contrary, has taken channels from usurpers and returned them to their lawful owners through the courts,” declared Kadagishvili.

According to him, the Georgian people will demand answers from whoever is the author of such an orchestrated assault on democracy in Georgia.

“They believe that the Georgian people and Georgia are mere pawns, easily bullied and manipulated. But what is this visa liberalisation really about? At the end of the day, it simply means going abroad for 90 days without having to queue at an embassy. And they dare to threaten us with this? They are threatening the Georgian people with such a trivial matter? The Georgian people, who have made immense sacrifices and efforts for Europe and NATO, and who still had the nerve to include in a resolution questioning why we hadn’t adopted sanctions against Russia, who then was truly our defender? We had the best contingents throughout NATO, and they haven’t gifted Georgia a single rifle.

Do you know what truly matters? What matters is Georgia, its survival and peace within this country. It is not about turning Georgia into a puppet nation, manipulated in such a way that they would prefer not visa liberalisation, but rather a rain of bombs that would turn this place into a headache. That is what genuinely matters for Georgia.

And don’t worry, visa liberalisation is not a topic they will tackle so easily. They granted visa liberalisation to the Georgian people, and now they would have to punish the Georgian people. They are not going to do that, which is why they won’t even consider it, because we are in the right. Georgia is in the right,” declared Irakli Kadagishvili.