Gogolashvili: "Democrats" are a major headache for "Georgian Dream", worsening of policy with US should be expected

Kakha Gogolashvili, a researcher of EU policy, believes that after the "Democrats" win the midterm elections, US policy towards Georgia will only worsen. According to him, the "Democrats" are a very big headache for "Georgian Dream". He made the statement on the "Palitra News" program "Free Studio".

According to Gogolashvili's assessment, if "Georgian Dream" had hoped until now that the Trump administration was in confrontation with Europe and would use this, the "Democrats" are in a much better position with Europeans.

"We know well that "Republicans" still had some chance of getting along, specifically with MAGA, that part of the "Republicans" who are troubled by transactional ideas regarding Russia. "Democrats" are, of course, a very big headache," Gogolashvili said.

According to him, the main slogan of the "Democrats" is values and support for democracy, so much greater criticism of Georgia came from them. Gogolashvili says that the "Democrats" will not act against Europe. In his view, the use of the Trump administration's skeptical attitude towards the EU will no longer be possible now, because the administration no longer has power, while the "Democrats" will have the opportunity to exert pressure.

Gogolashvili also spoke about the latest enlargement package of the European Commission, which the leaders of "Georgian Dream" criticized. According to him, the European Commission has been preparing reports for 35 years, and until now no one has asked how reliable these reports are. This tradition was established from 1993, when the Copenhagen criteria were introduced.

Gogolashvili considered Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's statement that "we will not accept remarks and will accept only what we like" to be absolute nonsense. "Whether you accept or not, you simply will not join the European Union," he said.

According to the researcher, during enlargement the EU conducts negotiations with the country on 35 chapters: it reviews assessments and how close the candidate's legislation, institutional system and policies are to the EU. This, in his words, is a democratic but well-defined and strict process, which does not change because of the country's wishes. Gogolashvili notes that the Copenhagen criteria and EU requirements are open and published on the website.