Grigol Gegelia on the local self-government elections: I don't know what the context will be when we ultimately have to make a decision; what I do know is that my party and I are consciously fighting to achieve new parliamentary elections; Would you like this translated more formally or kept in this conversational tone?

As soon as this (Russia-Ukraine) war ends, there will be nothing left of “Georgian Dream,” because they have nothing besides war propaganda — this is what Grigol Gegelia, one of the leaders of "Lelo – For a Strong Georgia," said on Palitra News’ program Rezume.

According to Gegelia, “Georgian Dream” is feeding its own voters toxic poison disguised as dramatic content through propaganda, to make them forget their own hardship and redirect their aggression elsewhere.

“Georgian Dream” has no answers on the economy. 44% of our population says they cannot afford food, 55% say they cannot afford medicine. So who is the economy growing for? Maybe for a few individuals, but for the people — for the average citizen — economic growth means nothing in their daily life. They can’t buy food or medicine, they are afraid to have children, afraid of the future. Half of Georgia is living in this reality. Over 700,000 people are in a state of total social insecurity. In just the recent period, 300,000 have left the country; in total, more than a million — this is the real measure of the economy.

Last year, Bidzina Ivanishvili got richer by 300,000, but did anything improve for anyone else? Salaries have stayed the same for years, prices keep going up. “Georgian Dream” has no answers for any of the problems we face today. They are deceiving people, feeding them toxic poison as dramatic content so they forget the fact that when they wake up in the morning and evening comes, they’re still hungry, still hopeless, still unhappy, still unemployed,” Gegelia stated.

He also touched on the issue of the local self-government elections, saying that discussing the October elections now is premature. However, he emphasized that “Lelo – For a Strong Georgia” is working to secure new parliamentary elections and the release of those arrested during the protest period.

“We are not engaging in this discussion at all. Bringing this issue up in January or February was, and still is, fundamentally wrong — especially when the elections are in October. I believe, unfortunately, this helped Ivanishvili’s propaganda. Some of our colleagues in the opposition didn’t see it that way — that’s their decision and agenda. I consider it a mistake and say openly that raising this topic in January was misguided, especially when the unifying slogan for the entire country was — and still is — new parliamentary elections and the release of the 52 people who are absolutely unjustly imprisoned.

I don’t know what the context will be when we ultimately have to make a decision, but I know that my party and I are consciously fighting to achieve new parliamentary elections. We are working both inside the country and abroad to ensure that new elections are held and that these innocent people are freed,” said Gegelia.