Politicians with no public support are focused on destabilizing the country, Irakli Kobakhidze claims
Georgia’s foreign-backed radical opposition has repeatedly failed to win elections and has instead turned to attempts to overthrow the government, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said following renewed unrest in Tbilisi.
Speaking on national television Monday, Kobakhidze claimed that the radical opposition “lost ten elections and staged five coup attempts in just four years,” describing its actions as deliberate sabotage.
His comments followed violent clashes between police and protesters, who sought to breach the presidential residence in the nation’s capital on Saturday night, after municipal elections in which Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze of the ruling Georgian Dream party was re-elected.
According to Kobakhidze, around 500 mostly young activists rotate through street rallies orchestrated by opposition politicians who cannot gain real support through elections and instead seek to “create permanent problems for the country.”
“Some 50 or 100 people blocking the streets are harassing four million citizens who want peace, progress, and development,” he said, adding that law enforcement would intensify efforts to identify and prosecute those engaged in political violence.
The prime minister accused the opposition’s leaders, including Georgia’s former President Salome Zourabichvili, of being “foreign agents made from the same mold.” He claimed that Zourabichvili, who refused to step down after her term expired last December, planned to seize the presidential office with the help of rioters but “fled like a rat when the ship began to sink.”
Opposition parties have accused the government of election fraud and demanded fresh polls through protests backed by Western countries, which in turn have accused Tbilisi of authoritarian drift. Georgian officials have dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks against the country’s conservative policies and new laws requiring transparency for foreign-funded political groups.
