Radical opposition trying Georgia not to be granted EU membership candidate status: Papuashvili

Tbilisi: The Parliamentary speaker of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, on Wednesday, stated that domestic ‘radical opposition‘ has been trying hard against the country acquiring the European Union membership candidate status.

The speaker claimed that the opposition doesn’t really want Georgia to receive membership candidate status from the bloc as the move would strengthen the government as per their point of view.

The opposition’s ideology is that giving the country the European Union candidate status will solidify the currently ruling government, and anything that strengthens the ruling government is harmful from their political point of view because they only want to weaken the government that has been elected by the people, and somehow, through disorder, regain the absolute power that they had years ago”, Papuashvili stated.

Papuashvili also noted that the opposition had even tried to turn the foreign partners against providing the membership status to Georgia.

We see the radical opposition, which, instead of being engaged in contributing to the implementation of [EU] recommendations, is engaged in participating in various trips and convincing foreign partners that Georgia should not receive the membership candidate status”, Papuashvili continued.

However, he stated that Georgia is being fully supported by its European counterparts and individual countries as well. 

Papuashvili also discussed things with chairs of the parliaments of the European Union member states. He concluded, saying that “We see that the only thing that obstructs this path for the status is the campaign of the radical opposition calling out loud -‘Don’t give the candidate status to Georgia.”

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