Georgian parliament speaker brands central Tbilisi rally a ‘parade of UNM orcs’, slams German ambassador

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has described an anti-Government protest held outside the ruling Georgian Dream party’s headquarters on Wednesday as a “gathering of the United National Movement [opposition] orcs,” accusing the opposition and its supporters of embodying an ideology he connected with the former ruling party which, he said, meant being stripped of human values.

Speaking a day after parliament adopted a report condemning the former United National Movement (UNM) government, Papuashvili said the rally showed “the true face of the UNM and its affiliates as an ideology.” He described the protest as “a parade of orcs – swearing, violence, fascist shouts”. 

The speaker alleged that one of the organisers of the demonstration was an “extremist group” recently received by the German ambassador in Tbilisi. He criticised the envoy for posing for a photograph with an activist who, he claimed, had taken part in the protest.

“This is the Georgia that the German ambassador apparently wants to see – swearing, cursing, violence, women shouting obscenities, people who have lost their dignity,” Papuashvili said. He urged the ambassador to either distance himself from the activists or risk being seen as “deliberately supporting extremist groups.”

Papuashvili also condemned what he called a “shameful attack” on Beka Odisharia, a ruling party candidate who had an incident with demonstrators on Wednesday. He warned that “every UNM titushka [a paid provocator] will always get an appropriate response.”