“We, Lelo for a Strong Georgia, will definitely have a meeting with Giorgi Vashadze. This is a different stage of the struggle now, and this stage requires appropriate responses. We will take part in consultations regarding these responses. I do not think that other televised appeals or talk about various platforms and umbrellas is effective,” said Giorgi Sioridze, a member of Lelo for a Strong Georgia, to journalists near Rustavi Prison, where he and his colleagues were waiting for the release of Strategy Aghmashenebeli leader Giorgi Vashadze.

As Sioridze noted, they will hold working consultations with Giorgi Vashadze.

“Today is a joyful day - Giorgi Vashadze is free. I congratulate his family members, his comrades-in-arms, and everyone who is glad about the freedom of a political prisoner. Like the prisoners of conscience, other political prisoners were unjustly imprisoned by Ivanishvili. I want us to very soon see every prisoner of conscience in this country free. Once and for all, the history of political prisoners in this country must end. Such an institution should not exist at all, and we will definitely achieve this.

As for Giorgi Vashadze’s determination, I welcome it. Naturally, we expected nothing else. He is ready to fight. Lelo for a Strong Georgia will definitely meet with him. Giorgi is our friend, but we will have working consultations, just as we did with Zurab ‘Girchi’ Japaridze. Accordingly, our party’s position has always been the same, ever since the 2024 parliamentary elections: it is important to confront the Russian regime - a regime backed by Putin’s Russia - with unity, a unified strategy, and effective methods of struggle.

We are still ready for consultations that will serve the best interests of Georgia’s citizens and the country’s Euro-Atlantic future. At the same time, I do not want the public to get the impression that we are now talking, as if in an election campaign, about electoral groupings or party mergers. We must clearly understand that Georgian Dream intends to ban our parties through the Constitutional Court. We are facing a completely different reality and challenge now. This is a different stage of the struggle, and it requires appropriate responses. We will participate in consultations regarding these responses, but I do not think that other televised appeals or talk about platforms and umbrellas is effective. We will sit down in a working format and then make political decisions,” Sioridze said.