Republican party head confronts unidentified opposition groups for “hindering” Tbilisi’s EU goals

Khatuna Samnidze, an opposition MP and the head of the Republican Party, has accused unidentified domestic opposition groups of hampering the country’s EU candidacy through assuring the bloc’s representatives not to grant Tbilisi the membership candidate status in December. 

 

In her comments on Tuesday and Wednesday, the MP claimed such actions also contradicted the message of other opposition groups that the country “needs the status”, and added “Governments come and go”, while Georgia’s uninterrupted EU integration was “critically important”. 

 

The ruling party MPs said the claims “confirmed” their allegations over the months that the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition had been engaged in “anti-state efforts”, and were asking the EU structures not to grant Georgia the requested status. 

 

They also urged Samnidze to name the opposition politicians, while the members of the United National Movement – called the “radical force” by the GD – also called on the opposition leader to directly name whom she meant, rejecting their engagement in “any efforts” against Georgia’s EU candidacy. 

 

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the GD and Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of the party, on Wednesday claimed the UNM, the Lelo opposition party, and Nika Gvaramia, the recently pardoned founder of the opposition-minded Mtavari TV channel and a former UNM official, were “lobbying against Georgia’s candidate status” in Europe.