“Where have they seen any suppressed opinion? I think that, of all things, in Georgia there is no suppressed opinion—there are opinions that sometimes go a bit beyond reason and turn into insult and hate speech. They should also consider that Gakharia is simply mocking his own party members from the outside,” said Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, commenting on the initiative by the “For Georgia” faction to introduce amendments to the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations.

According to Papuashvili, party leader Giorgi Gakharia often pushes his parliamentary team to raise issues that end up harming them.

“I think the people who are in parliament today under the name of the party ‘For Georgia’ should think and realize that the fugitive Gakharia is simply mocking them. He makes them raise issues that harm themselves and are against their own interests.

Previously, they initiated something regarding demonstrations, which primarily concerns them and their leader, who is a fugitive from the very investigation related to violence against protesters.

Giorgi Gakharia has been implicated in the fact that the tragic incidents that occurred during the dispersal of demonstrations happened under his leadership. An investigation is ongoing, and this person has fled, and I do not understand why these people [members of Gakharia’s party] are still raising such issues. They should also realize that Gakharia is simply mocking his party members from the outside.

Where have they seen any suppressed opinion? I think that, in Georgia, there is no suppressed opinion—there are opinions that sometimes go slightly beyond reason and turn into insult and hate speech. Everything can be found in the wide spectrum of our media. There is no suppression in Georgia at all,” Papuashvili said.