Speaker points at date confusion; rallies began on October 26, when people defeated radical opposition

“I don’t know why they’re reducing the number of days. The protests began on October 26, 2024, at 20:00 precisely, when the radical opposition and certain ambassadors learnt that the Georgian people had defeated them,” the Speaker of Georgia’s Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, told journalists.

“Salome Zourabichvili took the floor and called all of this variously a Russian special operation and electoral fraud. The protests have been ongoing since October 26, driven by nothing more than a petty tantrum: the minority seeks to rule over the majority, for Georgia to be governed from abroad, and for those in power to have not a leg to stand on or serve Georgia’s true interests. It seems someone is getting their dates confused.

For over a year now, externally directed terror has been underway to replace the government through anti-democratic means,” Papuashvili noted.

According to the Speaker, on June 27, 2024, Brussels unilaterally suspended dialogue with the Georgian government on accession matters, and what was halted in June 2024 could not have been halted in November 2024.

“Read Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement from last year, and we stand by every word. Since then, it has been confirmed even more thoroughly how correct that statement was. On June 27, 2024, Brussels unilaterally suspended dialogue with the Georgian government on accession matters to influence Georgia’s elections. The embassy acknowledged this in writing recently. What was halted in June 2024 could not have been halted in November 2024.

In the period between October 26 and November 28, it was evident that certain European bureaucrats and politicians, having been defeated by the Georgian people, were attempting to use the EU issue as a tool of blackmail, to keep the Georgian people under constant blackmail.

We will only open negotiations with you if you do not have a leg to stand on; they sought to place the Georgian people in such a humiliating position. That’s why it was said that Georgia’s government would continue preparing the country for EU membership. We’ve said many times that Georgia will be the most prepared for EU membership by 2030, but we will not beg Brussels bureaucrats. That’s what Brussels bureaucracy wanted at the time; the same bureaucracy that, through its ambassador’s hands, directly interfered in Georgia’s elections, whose politicians came here and organised rallies against us,” Papuashvili stated.

Furthermore, Papuashvili declared that last year, one of the senior officials of the Swedish government was calling for a “Maidan” and radicalisation, whilst the Swedish government has to this day not distanced itself from that statement.

“Today I saw a statement from Sweden’s Foreign Minister. The Swedish government hasn’t distanced itself by a single word. The minister was calling on people to create a ‘Maidan’ after last year’s elections. This is what European politicians and Brussels were doing to us last year.

They wanted a Maidan here, bloodshed, chaos, anything to install their own puppets in power. The answer to precisely that was that Georgia is ready, at any moment, as soon as Brussels changes its unjust decision and offers Georgia negotiations, we would begin those negotiations immediately, and we would be exemplary in the negotiation process.

Georgia and the Georgian people will not beg certain European bureaucrats. Over this past year, it has been confirmed that, regrettably, today’s Brussels bureaucracy has taken EU instruments into its hands and is attempting to turn these instruments into weapons of blackmail against independent peoples. It is a disgrace for today’s Europe,” Shalva Papuashvili declared.