If Europe and MEPs want to end polarization, they should give Georgia candidate status. This will lift questions and speculations and will end their [the opposition’s] destructive, radical actions, the extremist opposition will have no real reason to accuse our government, said Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at the parliament’s plenary session answering questions of MPs in the interpellation format.

According to the PM, the government did its best to start fulfilling the 12-point recommendations. However, the opposition chose to boycott and continues sabotage.

“I want to remind everyone that the first priority and condition is to end polarization that characterizes any democracy be it the USA or any country in Europe, there is polarization everywhere. Our country cannot and will not be an exception, but we must ask the public and the opposition – what is the opposition doing to reduce polarization? To briefly remind everyone – we have only seen boycotts, sabotage, and obstruction not get the candidate status, and we also saw destabilization, which is against the national interests of the country and people.

From the very beginning, we disagreed with the decision of the European partners. I told them personally that it was a mistake not to give Georgia candidate status in advance, like Moldova and Ukraine. Our prediction that polarization would not end, but increase, came true. We have seen destabilization attempts – last year, the June rallies, now the March protests.

Polarization has increased. Lawmakers do not participate in the work process. They did not participate in the working groups created to implement the 12 recommendations. Accordingly, our answer, which I shared with the European partners, is the following – if Europe, European MEPs and colleagues want to end polarization, they should give Georgia candidate status. This will lift questions, and speculations, end their [the opposition’s] destructive, radical actions, and the extremist opposition will have no real reason to accuse our government. This is the reality,” said the Prime Minister.