Europe – Georgia: a point of tension Expert opinions on Caliber.Az

“It is time for European leaders to wake up. They have betrayed their own people and the will of the European populace,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told journalists.

According to him, the loss of European identity is the ultimate outcome toward which the rule of today’s European leaders is leading the European Union.

“Our society clearly recognises that the policy of the Georgian Dream has been right and justified, especially over the past year. Everything we predicted has proven to be true; all the risks we warned about have materialised, and the hypocrites have been exposed. As for our foreign policy vision and the approaches we proposed to society, including during the election campaign — today all of this has come true. In this sense, the Georgian Dream has once again proven how important it was to withstand the enormous pressure exerted on the Georgian authorities, including from the EU and Brussels — through the NGOs and parties under their control.

Where would we be today if we had not withstood this pressure? We would be in the same position as Ukraine — in a situation where neither peace nor war is possible. By putting Ukraine in such a position, these hypocritical political leaders are also encouraging it. In reality, they are only driving the Ukrainian people into an even more difficult situation,” Papuashvili emphasised.

According to him, the new U.S. administration plays a special role, openly and directly telling the truth to European bureaucrats and political elites.

“For example, under the guise of pseudo-European values, the EU has effectively become a space where freedom of speech is restricted, democracy is limited, minority rule is imposed instead of the will of the majority being realised, and conflict prevails over peace. I believe this is precisely the moment when European leaders need to wake up. They have turned away from their own people, from their will. The only way out is to return to implementing it. The result has already been clearly indicated by the new U.S. administration. This is exactly what we were talking about — the loss of European identity. This is the ultimate point toward which the current rule of European leaders is leading the European Union,” Papuashvili said.

How should this statement by the Georgian Parliament Speaker be assessed? How real and significant are the threats he is referring to?

Well-known Georgian experts shared their opinions on this matter with Caliber.Az.

Analyst Irakli Lataria noted that the Georgian Parliament Speaker is speaking the truth.

“The most important point is that the Georgian Dream essentially echoes, word for word, the positions that Donald Trump’s administration is expressing today. The Prime Minister of Georgia has repeatedly emphasised that the current European leaders are not the politicians who should determine the future of the continent. Georgia is a European country, but we have our own principles, and we are not going to comply with what Brussels is dictating to us today.

I believe that the Georgian Dream and Bidzina Ivanishvili personally have done everything possible to ensure that the country is not drawn into war. This can be clearly seen by comparing what is happening today in Ukraine and what is happening in Georgia. Foreign investments are flowing into Georgia, the economy is developing, and corruption cases are being prosecuted. In Ukraine, however, civilians die every day. It seems that Brussels would like Georgia to lose the lives of its citizens on a daily basis as well.

Shalva Papuashvili is a worthy Speaker of Parliament who speaks what Georgia wants to hear, not what Brussels expects to hear,” Lataria concluded.

The political secretary of the party United Neutral Georgia and political analyst Bidzina Giorgobiani, in turn, noted that he has been publicly criticising European officials for a year and a half, who, in his view, are waging an information war against Georgia.

“This is no longer even about double standards — these are precisely the methods the European Union has been applying against Georgia in recent years. After 2020, they began funding street unrest, attempted coups, and violent actions against the legally elected government. A large-scale campaign was launched within the European Union against the Georgian Dream, including attempts to question the legitimacy of Georgia’s authorities.

All these actions were carried out by the so-called local opposition, as well as former President Salome Zourabichvili, who is currently a fellow of the McCain Foundation.

For over a year now, we have been stating that the European Union has lost touch with voters in its own countries. The Brussels bureaucracy is not a directly democratically elected authority. It is a structure representing a so-called deep state, controlled by financial oligarchs in Europe and the United States.

We are talking about far-left extremist liberal forces trying to impose their agenda on Europe and the entire world, including the promotion of so-called LGBT ‘culture,’” the politician said.

According to him, similar attempts have been made regarding Georgia, but they were unsuccessful because the South Caucasus remains a region with a traditional social structure.

“In Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, such ideas also do not enjoy widespread support — and thank God for that.

The European political elite, concentrated in Brussels, has already turned away from the pan-European humanitarian values that Europe has been proud of for decades. Today, the European Union is experiencing a serious economic, moral, and political crisis, especially after its main ally — the United States, which for decades ensured the security of European peoples — distanced itself from these new ‘values.’

U.S. President Donald Trump is already directly pointing out to Europe the presence of a civilisational problem and the threat of a deep crisis. This is essentially what the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili was talking about,” Giorgobiani emphasised.