“Elections are an additional front in the struggle, alongside the protest movement in the streets. I won’t respond to the opposition exactly as they deserve, but what’s coming from them is a dirty campaign and unhinged messaging.

How can you, on the one hand, criticize ‘Georgian Dream’ and, on the other, say you want to sabotage these elections?” – this statement was made by Berdia Sichinava, Executive Secretary of the party “For Georgia”, on Palitra News’ “Day Newsroom” program, in response to opposition parties that support an election boycott following the memorandum of cooperation signed between “For Georgia” and “Lelo – Strong Georgia” regarding local self-government elections.

According to Sichinava, “the only force that has tried to disrupt precincts in the past was the ‘Georgian Dream’ government, and now it seems the ‘National Movement’ wants to do the same – likely due to their own history.”

“These are not standard elections, and we must eliminate inter-opposition rivalry as much as possible. That’s why we declared that this is only the starting point of cooperation – based on agreements around independent, nonpartisan, or joint candidates. We’ve also made it clear that, on these principles, we’re open to cooperation with absolutely everyone.”

He continued:

“As for the opposition – I won’t answer them exactly how they deserve, but the kind of dirty campaign and aggressive messages they’re spreading, the way they call others ‘traitors’, ‘aligned with Ivanishvili’, ‘Russians’ just for having a different opinion – that’s something we must never allow in power. How can you criticize ‘Georgian Dream’ on one hand and, on the other, say you’ll sabotage these elections? The only ones who’ve ever tried to ruin precincts were ‘Georgian Dream’. Now the ‘National Movement’ wants to do it again. What, will they meet us at the precincts with ‘Georgian Dream’s’ "titushki"? Are they really part of such a campaign?”

On the topic of internal party differences, Sichinava emphasized that differing opinions are normal, and final decisions are made by majority vote:

“This party was founded on values and ideology. Many have come and gone – that’s not a problem. We are not a communist party. We respect all opinions, but decisions are made by the majority, and the vast majority believes that participating in the elections is the right choice. Even in families, people have different opinions – and that’s no problem. God forbid we ever silence differences like in ‘Georgian Dream’ or the ‘National Movement’. Regarding the removal of certain individuals from the electoral list – that’s related to local races, where specific individuals were nominated as majoritarian or mayoral candidates.”

On the Prime Minister’s recent statement about the local elections, Sichinava said:

“If anyone is historically and legally doomed to defeat, it’s Irakli Kobakhidze. He should be cautious in his statements, because it may not be the opposition that delivers his political sentence – it may be Ivanishvili himself. These people don’t know how to govern. The economy is on the brink of collapse. The whole special operation we’re seeing, all the infighting, is about splitting up stolen money. Their black party funds are in crisis. This regime is extremely expensive to maintain. And if anyone thinks Ivanishvili has the personal resources to finance his junta, they’re wrong – he’s got legal troubles of his own.”

Sichinava also addressed the recent tragedy at Station Square in Tbilisi, where two people were killed and one injured by a collapsing building:

“I express my condolences to the victims’ families and wish the injured a speedy recovery. Sadly, we are living from one tragedy to another – and this is no accident, despite what ‘Georgian Dream’ tries to portray. Death is walking through the city, literally falling on people’s heads. This was a known dangerous building that citizens had repeatedly reported. It’s not just negligence – this is a crime committed with indirect intent. Someone closed their eyes. Someone didn’t do their job. And then they come out and engage in political rambling. I don’t want to connect everything to politics, but this is a municipal-level issue. We must not leave this kind of power in control of our municipalities. We should not be handing all our resources over to Ivanishvili on a silver platter. That’s why we’ll use every line of resistance to ensure this ‘city of death’ becomes a ‘city of life’ again.”