The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party activists have left the EU office territory in central Tbilisi, where the party head Irakli Kobakhidze and opposition United National Movement leader Nika Melia exchanged insults earlier today. 

The UNM activists also came to the site following the incident. 

Both Melia and Kobakhidze arrived there to meet with the EU ambassador allegedly on the issue of recently leaked files which are expected to contain personal data on politicians, clerics and diplomats. 

Kobakhidze was speaking with the media when Melia arrived at the scene and called him a ‘slave’ and other abusive words, with Kobakhidze making the same response. 

The politicians were on the verge of a physical attack. 

Kobakhidze pardoned for the incident later, stating that it was hard to stay calm. However, he urged the ruling party activists ‘not to be provoked.’ 

The GD also said that the ‘only thing’ the opposition is engaged with ahead of the October 2 municipal elections ‘are staging provocations.’ 

As for the meeting at the EU office Kobakhidze said that the meeting ‘concerned the elections alone’ and the leaked files have not been discussed.

Melia says that it is difficult ‘to bear’ what the government does against our activists and that ‘everyone in the country is being eavesdropped.’ 

Ex-PM Gakharia’s For Georgia party members have called the incident ‘a mascarade’ which ‘must end’ on October 2. 

“Politicians must be engaged with politics, not with provocations,” Kakhaber Kemoklidze from For Georgia said at the EU office. 


Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition leader Giorgi Vashadze, who also met with EU ambassador Carl Hartzell, stated that he apologised for diplomats ‘being illegally eavesdropped in Georgia,’ adding that ‘it is the fault of the Georgian Dream government, not the Georgian people.’