“Blaming others for their failures is a familiar policy. Who forced Gharibashvili to file the application? People forced him. They were forced to file the application by the pressure of the opposition, they virtually filed the application the very next day," Roman Gotsiridze, a member of the United National Movement, told reporters.

According to him, the Government is trying to insure itself by accusing the opposition.

"Who forced Gharibashvili to file the application? The people forced him to do so. Who held rallies in front of the Chancellery? Who introduced the resolution in the Parliament? The opposition did. We forced him to agree to our initiative and as a result of pressure from the opposition, they were forced to file the application the very next day, whereas the chairman of their party said the day before that the situation in Ukraine was different and Georgia would file an application in 2024. So, they now make statements to insure themselves, they know very well that Georgia lags behind Ukraine and Moldova in terms of democracy. Moldova is ahead of us because it ousted its oligarch, the country is developing democratically, while our oligarch is ruling the country from behind the scenes and all branches of government are subordinated to the interest of the Russian oligarchs. Today, there is not a single opposition party that does not fight for Georgia's accelerated membership in the European Union, we know that this is not a short process and it will be up to us. There will be a coalition force that will implement all the reforms.

If the opposition, international partners or international organizations say that there is no democracy in the country and it is usurped by one person, that is a fact. They do not want the opposition to talk about the facts. This does not mean that the opposition wants to hamper the EU integration. The Government should be punished, not the people. This is our principle," Gotsiridze said.

He also responded to Kobakhidze's offer for a public discussion, noting that the Government is proud of its humanitarian aid, but they owe this assistance to the population.

According to Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party, certain politicians from the radical opposition are campaigning against Georgia's candidacy in the European Union.

"We have specific information that certain politicians from the radical opposition are going to the corridors, offices and campaigning against Georgia's candidacy in the European Union. This is a given fact, which is not a new event. We remember exactly the same thing about visa liberalization, back then it was not successful. Hopefully, their campaign will not be successful in this case either," Kobakhidze said.

source: IPN