Ruling party sec-gen: Georgians should walk to EU with “pride, dignity”, not as “slaves”

Kakha Kaladze, Tbilisi mayor and the secretary general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said he saw Georgia walking towards the European Union with “pride and dignity”, not “like slaves”. 

 

“We should not walk on one leg, not as slaves, but with our heads up, with our dignity. We are from a great country”, he told the media, and added “slavery is not good for anyone, neither Russians, nor Europeans or Americans”. 

 

Responding to the recent turmoil over the foreign transparency bill that was labelled as a “Russian law” by the international community, like other party officials, Kaladze claimed the United National Movement opposition party stood behind the “controversies” as a “radical force”. 

 

The ruling party was forced to recall a bill last week amid large-scale protests in the capital city. The bill proposed by former members of the ruling party who still remain in the parliamentary majority, envisaged the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they obtained more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, without specifying allied and hostile states. 

 

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Sunday accused the UNM and the country’s foreign partners and ambassadors of “misleading the public” over the “genuine goals” of the draft law.