"Ivanishvili wants to completely abolish politics in this country. If a final decision is made to ban pro-Western opposition parties, this will not change our agenda—we will definitely find other paths and methods of resistance!" stated Irakli Kupradze, Secretary General of "Lelo - Strong Georgia," while discussing the constitutional lawsuit prepared by "Georgian Dream," through which the ruling party demands the ban of three political entities, including "Lelo."

As Kupradze noted during his appearance on PalitraNews' "Day's Newsroom," Bidzina Ivanishvili "has every lever to make a criminal, anti-Georgian, anti-national, anti-Western decision."

"Ivanishvili wants to completely abolish politics in this country—he wants no political process to exist. In this, mistakes made by the opposition have also contributed, but it must be said that Ivanishvili now has every lever to make a criminal, anti-Georgian, anti-national, anti-Western decision. He is currently in this process. For us, it is completely clear that if a final decision is made to ban pro-Western opposition parties, this will not change our agenda. It will only change our legal form—and I am confident that will be temporary. We will definitely find other paths and methods of resistance," Kupradze said.

Kupradze noted that political analyst Gia Khukhashvili's view may prove realistic: the Constitutional Court could satisfy the lawsuit regarding the ban of the "United National Movement" and "Coalition for Change," but not in the case of "Lelo - Strong Georgia."

"At the briefing, Papuashvili mentioned our coalition in one phrase, claiming that we allegedly boycotted Parliament politically, surrendered our mandates, and in response, our political union should be banned. In this situation, the approach toward us is completely unjustified both legally and politically. We do not separate our case from other opposition parties, because even banning one political party in this context is a severe blow to democracy, freedom, and the political process—and to the rule of law in our state overall. We are not speaking egotistically, even about our advantages in this matter. Our main goal is to restore the political process in this country and reinstate justice. If we talk only about ourselves, I don’t think that helps," Kupradze said.

In Kupradze's view, no one—including Giorgi Gakharia's party—has the right to justify why they are not included in "Georgian Dream's" constitutional lawsuit.

"No one has the right to justify themselves to anyone. To understand why Ivanishvili is taking a specific step, we need to know his Russian, violent, cunning character and psyche. They used to tell us: justify why Mamuka and Badri were arrested. Then justify why they were released, and so on. Ivanishvili's goal is to confuse perceptions regarding specific political actors—to create different attitudes toward specific entities. This is where the media, politicians, civil figures, and experts play a very important role in determining what "Georgian Dream" intends with each such decision and so-called 'trick,' as Ivanishvili calls it. Therefore, we must refrain much more from criticizing each other. The focus should be on Ivanishvili. This call specifically concerns those political parties where 9 out of 10 activities are criticizing other opposition parties. Throwing stones at each other only harms the common cause," Irakli Kupradze said.

Regarding the "United National Movement's" position that the opposition should use the current situation "to revive a dying political process," Kupradze, in the context of that party's criticism toward "Lelo," says: "This party needs to decide whether it sees allies or enemies in other opposition parties."

"They also need to decide what political strategy they are choosing. They are feeding citizens the illusion of some non-existent revolution. Do you have any information about the 'United National Movement's' new political strategy? I don’t know what political strategy these two parties ('United National Movement' and 'Coalition for Change') have. One was obsessed with boycott, the other with revolutionary spirit. Neither worked out for understandable reasons. If we are to shake hands and say we are choosing a common path and agreeing on a strategy, we need to know what your strategy is. If we don’t know that, any attempt to build any kind of unity on falsehood is impossible, irrational, and futile. Without value-based unity, just on the issue of replacing Bidzina... beyond that, how should we replace him, what should a political party do for this, what strategy should it use for resistance—if we don’t know this, then of course, talking about any unity or cooperation will be meaningless," Kupradze said.

According to him, "the scheme [regarding party bans] only exposes Ivanishvili's love for power."

"This is about reducing the chances of changing the government—imposing some ban on government change so that the government should not change and 'Georgian Dream' should remain forever under Ivanishvili's rule. The scheme only exposes Ivanishvili's love for power. Our goal is to become stronger and find other types of strategic resistance. If the opposition had not made mistakes regarding boycott at the time, had not had completely irrational expectations regarding a revolutionary scenario, and so on... beyond that, if they had used the chance, including in local elections, we would be in a very different situation," Kupradze said.