Georgia’s ruling party ‘instrumentalise’ conservative values to stay in power, expert says

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00:00Well, for more on this now, let's speak to Tornike Gordadze, Georgia's former Europe

00:04minister and a fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute.

00:08He joins us now on the line.

00:11Thank you for speaking with us, Mr. Gordadze.

00:13First off, quite simply, your reaction to these new rules restricting contestation against

00:20the ruling government?

00:23First of all, Mr. Kavalashvili is not considered as a legitimate president by most of the Georgians.

00:34He's called a de facto president by the Georgians.

00:37And even when the EU or United States address him, they call him or the new prime minister

00:45as the representatives of the ruling party Georgian Dream.

00:49So his decisions are not considered as legitimate by most of people who are demanding, who are

00:56asking for new elections.

00:59Mr. Kavalashvili was chosen by this billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, to destroy any independent

01:08institution in this country and to leave Mr. Ivanishvili as the only source of power.

01:13Mr. Kavalashvili was a football player, as your journalist said before.

01:19He has no education, no diploma.

01:24His application was rejected when he applied to be the president of the Football Federation

01:31of the country.

01:32So his decision to sign these new draconian laws are not recognized as legitimate by people.

01:40But it is clearly the copy of the repressive draconian laws that exist in Russia and Belarus,

01:48and of course these laws and amendments aimed at destroying the protests that we see in

01:56the streets of Tbilisi for two months now every day.

02:00Even yesterday there was, yesterday evening, a huge rally.

02:03And tonight most of the population of this city will celebrate the new year in the streets

02:09of Tbilisi in front of the parliament and demanding again for new elections.

02:15You were a Europe minister in Georgia.

02:18Adhesion to the EU has a lot of popular support.

02:21We mentioned it in our package earlier.

02:23About 80% of the population is in support of it.

02:26What happens to that movement now in the face of such repression?

02:31The movement will continue, and people will staunchly continue to come and to rally every

02:39day.

02:40I'm not sure the regime is able to enforce all these draconian laws, because so far we

02:46have 51 political prisoners since the rallies have started, people who are accused preparing

02:54coup d'etat.

02:57Some of them, you see, 18 years old kids or some very young protesters of 20, 24 years

03:04old, some of them.

03:06And they are facing charges that can, you know, they can be sentenced to seven, nine

03:13years of prison.

03:14But it didn't stop Georgians from rallying.

03:18And if the regime continues arresting people, it will bring more people in the streets.

03:23That's why I'm doubting how they will be able to implement all these amendments that

03:31they brought to the law.

03:33Just for the formal side of this, of this event, Mr. Kavalashvili was given a few hours

03:39to read 28 new amendments that were prepared for him.

03:44I'm sure he even didn't read it, considering the speed he can also, I know, in reading

03:52documents or understanding them.

03:54And one of the representatives of the ruling party, when he was asked, did the president

04:00really read all these 28 amendments?

04:02He said, ironically, yes, he read and even he understood them.

04:07So you see the tragic, tragicomic situation in Georgia regarding this new self-proclaimed

04:14president.

04:15We mentioned the man backing the Georgian Dream Party and the new president, the billionaire

04:21oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, Bedzina Ivanishvili.

04:26What can you tell us about him more than what we know?

04:29What are his real motivations here?

04:31Is he a real staunch defender of conservative values, as Georgian Dream Party professes

04:37that he is?

04:38Or what are their economic motivations behind, behind his actions?

04:45Look, when it comes to the values, this party, Georgian Dream, has started in 2011, 2012

04:52to be a left-wing populist party.

04:55They were promising free money for everyone, raising salaries and pensions, etc.

05:03And in a few years' time, from the left, they became far-right party.

05:07And now they are associated with AfD in Germany and Viktor Orban's far-right Fidesz party.

05:15So the ideology doesn't really mean anything for them.

05:18The only reason they are now conservative is because they lost the support of all mainstream

05:26forces and in their populist stance now they criticize the European Union and they try

05:36to scare Georgian population, saying that our European Union means LGBT rights, the

05:44same-sex marriage, war with Russia, etc.

05:48So these conservative values are just instrumentalized by this government to keep power.

05:55And Mr. Ivanishvili personally has ties with Russia.

05:59He was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, Treasury Department, under the register of

06:06Russia's, Russian influence agents.

06:10So it shows clearly his ties with the Russian Federation and the Russia's influence on their

06:19neighbors.

06:20Tornike Gordadze, thank you so much for your insights.

06:24That's all we have time for, unfortunately.

06:26As a reminder, you are Georgia's former Europe minister and a fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute.

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