The chairman of “Girchi – More Freedom,” Zurab Japaridze, delivered a speech at the ALDE Congress event.

“We have a state that has been seized by a billionaire. Over the past few years, especially after the 2024 parliamentary elections, we have seen constant attacks on civil society. A few civil organizations remain that are still partially functioning. We do not have a civil organization that is fully functioning, and this is due to the lack of resources. Due to the laws adopted by the regime, they cannot receive funding from outside the country. One is the so-called Russian law, which is a direct copy of the Russian law. The second law is about grants, according to which you cannot receive a grant from outside the country without permission from the government. They are also attacking independent critical media. Unfortunately, the majority of Georgia’s population still receives news from television channels. Therefore, television channels operating throughout the country are very important. Now two remain, but both are in crisis due to the lack of financial resources,” Zurab Japaridze stated.

According to him, constant attacks on protesters are being carried out.

“We have daily protest rallies in several cities, including the capital Tbilisi. Numerous laws have been adopted against demonstrators. You can be fined just for standing in the street, or you can be arrested for standing on the sidewalk. This is now a criminal offense; you can be sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment for standing on the sidewalk. There are constant attacks on opposition parties. In fact, they are trying to ban all political groups that participated in the 2024 elections. Political leaders are being arrested. We were in prison. Elene Khoshtaria is still in prison. Those of us who are outside prison have new charges brought against us. This is the reality in which we live,” Zurab Japaridze noted.