Speaker Papuashvili: Radical opposition is now reaping what it sowed by listening to foreign governments instead of Georgian people

“When you submit to a foreign power, watch what they tell you from abroad, and arrange your entire political agenda accordingly, you will ultimately find yourself in precisely the situation the radical opposition finds itself in today,” declared Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili at a briefing held at the parliament.

In his view, the radical opposition is now bearing the consequences of having heeded not the Georgian people, but a foreign government.

“The State Department’s final statement made plain what the Trump administration’s position is on attempts to change power outside of democratic processes and on boycotting democratic institutions. This is where people end up when they listen not to their own constituents, but to the leadership of a foreign country. It was the Biden administration that drove the radical opposition out of parliament in 2024. It was the Biden administration that made them relinquish their mandates. And today they are reaping what they sowed, because they listened not to the Georgian people, but to a foreign government,” Papuashvili said.

He added that Lelo’s representatives have now changed their position precisely because the new American administration has shown them a different stance.

“It is entirely to the credit of the Biden administration and Brussels that these people are now a street-level radical opposition that attempted to bring down the government by force. Their leaders are currently serving sentences for incitement to overthrow the state, as are some of their supporters. This will probably not serve as a lesson to them personally, but it ought to serve as a lesson to many people in Georgia. When you submit to a foreign power and shape your political agenda around what you are told from abroad, you will end up exactly where the radical opposition has ended up today.

We have seen Lelo’s statements, made with great fanfare, and now it has emerged that Lelo and others were arguing amongst themselves on this very question all along. The mandates they renounced were surrendered at the Biden administration’s instruction. They have now changed their minds because the new American administration has presented a different stance. Their political agenda is formed and revised according to whatever they are told from outside. What greater shame could there be than to watch, in live broadcasts, individuals and groups openly offering themselves to foreign countries as their emissaries in Georgia, presenting Georgia on a silver platter and saying: Back us, bring us to power, and we will do whatever you instruct,” Papuashvili declared.