Kobakhidze Threatened Zurabishvili with Prison and Said There Will Be No Re-Elections
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has threatened the country's president with prison. He warned that if Salome Zurabishvili does not vacate her residence by December 29, it will be considered a criminal offense.
"I am sure that she will have enough common sense not to violate the criminal code... No one wants to send a 72-year-old woman to prison, but by doing so she will expose everyone who will be with her in the presidential residence in such a scenario. I will say again that I am assuming a different scenario. I think that she will have enough common sense not to violate the criminal code herself or force someone else to violate the rules that provide for long-term imprisonment," the head of the Cabinet said.
In addition, Kobakhidze said that mass rallies are no longer being held, and the media are showing old video footage of Rustaveli Avenue completely filled with protesters. According to him, Saturday's protest gathered three thousand people at most.
"As you can see, people are no longer participating in rallies. Yesterday they announced a full mobilization, but even then they barely managed to gather about 3,000 people. After that, they started sharing photos from last year's protests. People no longer attend rallies, they were unable to provoke the police, they were unable to create the same tense situation with the use of violence. There is a difficult emotional background in the radical opposition, a kind of hysteria," Kobakhidze concluded.
As for the protesters' demands for new elections, all of them, according to the prime minister, are "comical." He said that there will be no new elections, since there are no grounds for this. Kobakhidze emphasized that the Central Election Commission recognized the elections as valid and announced the results, the Constitutional Court confirmed their legitimacy, and the newly elected parliament expressed confidence in the government.
Recall that today is the 25th day of protests in Georgia, which began due to the government's decision to suspend negotiations on the country's European integration until 2028. On December 28, an hour-long protest action "Chain of Unity" against the inauguration of the new president will be held throughout Georgia, activists announce.
