“The truth is bitter, and you will have to hear this truth from us in Parliament, which—get used to it—will no longer be your party office from today, and here you will hear the people’s voice and dissenting opinions from us,” said Giorgi Sharashidze, one of the leaders of the “Gakharia – For Georgia” party, addressing majority members at the parliamentary plenary session.
According to Giorgi Sharashidze, he believes that “through principled and uncompromising struggle against the ‘Dream’s’ violent regime, we will achieve free elections, a just order, and the return of our country to the path of a democratic, European future.”
“Rest assured that for every lie you have voiced here, you will receive exhaustive and competent responses. The Georgian people will truly learn who the real traitor is, who the real liar is, and what betrayal means altogether. Believe me, the Georgian people will truly understand this. Have hope for that and be prepared to hear this truth. I will refrain from specifics—this is our political team’s first speech, and we will of course use it to address the Georgian people, not you. First and foremost, if the Parliament of Georgia belongs to anyone, it is neither you nor any other party—it belongs first and foremost to the Georgian people. Unfortunately, for a year now, the Georgian people have been waiting in this Parliament for dissenting opinions to be voiced, but we have received a reality where only one party’s messages are heard in this hall, messages that have no connection to the truth and serve only to mislead and deceive the population. Our political force is fully aware of and takes responsibility for the mistakes we made over this past year—and unlike you, we have never had a problem admitting mistakes. This primarily concerns the parliamentary boycott. We must admit and we do admit that this form of political protest failed to stop the ‘Dream’s’ violence machine and failed to prevent de facto harmful decisions made by the authorities for the country—such as renouncing Georgia’s European future, adopting a law that violates human rights, and most importantly, failing to stop ‘Dream’ from committing violence against peaceful citizens. Unfortunately, against the backdrop of the boycott and the total campaign for the so-called ‘peaceful overthrow’ on October 4—which, by the way, was covered and propagated with particular zeal by the government’s propagandist media—a portion of the population truly believed that ‘peaceful overthrow’ could become an instrument of political change in this country. Meanwhile, ‘Dream,’ which faced a severe legitimacy crisis due to its numerous crimes and acts of violence, was given the opportunity to buy time and intimidate the people with the threat of ‘peaceful overthrow’ as an even worse alternative to the existing harsh reality. It was precisely through this fear factor that ‘Dream’ managed to gradually regain lost voters and, accordingly, overcome the legitimacy crisis. However, we say directly that without the artificial encouragement of confrontation and radicalization, you would not have been able to do this. Therefore, neither you can escape responsibility for the grave consequences of the October 4 provocation, which brought the country to the dangerous threshold of confrontation—because at the very least, you did not stop this provocation in time and allowed the state to be put at such risk—nor can those irresponsible provocateur politicians who participated directly or indirectly in organizing or encouraging the October 4 ‘peaceful overthrow,’ whether as culprits or as useful idiots, when on October 4 they called on people to come out for a ‘peaceful overthrow’ rally instead of elections. That is why we say this page cannot be turned until mistake is called mistake and crime is called crime,” Giorgi Sharashidze stated.
As he noted, the party’s main value and concern is the Georgian people.
“On one hand, our citizens deceived by ‘Dream’ and victims of propaganda; on the other, disillusioned due to the irresponsibility of opposition politicians. It is precisely out of respect for the Georgian people and recognition of the reality that we failed to offer them a better alternative—because for a year we ourselves refused the mandates given by the people and left you alone in this hall—that we are ready to accept this challenge and return the people’s voice and dissenting opinions to Parliament, which belongs neither to you nor to any other party, but solely to the Georgian people! The people who found themselves defenseless against the ‘Dream’s’ propagandist regime, a regime under whose laws, unfortunately, the country is governed today and on whose basis countless people have been arrested! Therefore, the only way out of this grave situation is to return all political instruments and platforms intended for the people to the service of the people. The truth is bitter, and you will have to hear this truth from us in Parliament, which—get used to it—will no longer be your party office from today, and here you will hear the people’s voice and dissenting opinions from us! We believe that through principled and uncompromising struggle against the ‘Dream’s’ violent regime, we will achieve free elections, a just order, and the return of our country to the path of a democratic, European future!” Sharashidze stated.
Giorgi Sharashidze to majority members: The truth is bitter, and you will have to hear this truth from us in Parliament, which – get used to it – will no longer be your party office from today – here you will hear the people’s voice and dissenting opinions from us
