Chergoleishvili: Banning Opposition Parties Does Not Matter for 'Federalists'

One of the leaders of the 'Federalists', Tamar Chergoleishvili, responded to the scheduling of the consideration of a constitutional claim prepared on banning opposition parties. According to her, Georgia needs strong parties, because only they can bring about change.

According to Chergoleishvili, anyone who claims that now is not the time for party fragmentation "is a delusional idiot who has no idea what is happening in Georgian society, what the crisis of leadership means, and does not even understand what a party means". In her words, the strength of parties does not depend on the regime's bans.

"The strength of parties depends on their public support, so I apologize greatly, but I can only express joy at the regime's desperate scheming - I take it as a demonstration of the regime's weakness and that is why. There is absolutely no significance for the 'Federalists' in this regime's banning of our party", writes Chergoleishvili.

According to her, a process in which such a thing not only happens in reality but is even allowed to be possible is not a political process in which the citizen's voice carries weight.

"Considering that four of the parties subject to a ban, that is, all of them except the 'Federalists', took part in the 2024 elections and, according to the regime's own bookkeeping, received more than 800 thousand votes, you will see more clearly that the regime nullifies the choice of 800 thousand people it itself counted and takes away their voice", she notes.

According to Chergoleishvili, the 'Federalists' did not intend to legitimize this lawlessness and present it as a political process even before their party was added to the list of parties to be banned. "Our path runs through strengthening our party with public support - through peaceful but principled and consistent resistance, and through better organizing and expanding this resistance until the citizen's voice acquires weight that can topple the regime", she writes.

In her assessment, this will certainly happen when a political center emerges that shapes the political agenda and focuses on vital interests of society.

"Absolutely no! There is absolutely no significance for the 'Federalists' in what Bidzina Ivanishvili decides - whatever he decides, we will use everything to dismantle autocracy - on all fronts", writes Tamar Chergoleishvili.