Ruling Party MP: foreign partners ‘forced to face reality’ as ex-PM Gakharia’s party returns to Parliament

The leader of Georgia’s parliamentary majority, Irakli Kirtskhalia, said that foreign partners had “finally faced reality” after members of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party decided to take up their parliamentary and municipal mandates.

Kirtskhalia claimed that this decision reflected a broader acknowledgment by Georgia’s Western partners of the country’s real political landscape. He argued that international actors would eventually have to “engage with Georgian Dream as partners” and accept the “government’s stance on issues of sovereignty and independence.”

“Their patrons have faced reality,” Kirtskhalia said. “They now understand that they must speak to us as partners, in a format where both their interests and Georgia’s national interests are respected.”

He also accused Western states of attempting to impose their political agenda on Georgia, saying such efforts had failed elsewhere and would not succeed in Tbilisi.