Verbal and Physical Attacks against Opposition in Parliament and Local Sakrebulo

On October 31, members of the ruling Georgian Dream party verbally and physically attacked representatives of the opposition. These incidents took place at both the national and local levels. During a plenary session of the Parliament, female MPs Ana Tsitlidze and Teona Akubardia were verbally attacked, while one male representative of the United National Movement was physically assaulted during a meeting of Gardabani Sakrebulo (local council).

Independent MP Teona Akubardia was verbally attacked by GD MP Irakli Beraia, chair of the Security and Defense Committee, after she criticized the Georgian pariamentary delegation for not supporting the amendment in support of Georgia at the recent NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Beraia lashed out at the MP saying that Akubardia is a “shameless and disgraceful liar”, who is aware that the “Georgian delegation doesn’t vote during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, because it is not a member state.” He also claimed that Akubardia wouldn’t attend Assembly meetings because she would leave for a “shopping trip” or “was too hungover and too lazy to lift her head from the pillow.” Finally, said: “I urge this person to refrain from mentioning me and my committee, with her long tongue, wherever it has been.”

UNM representative Ana Tsitlidze was attacked by Aluda Gudushauri, who was commenting on the MPs request to visit the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili at the hospital. He called Tsitlidze, a member of UNM “lame” and a “loser”, who “isn’t even included in the list of women Saakashvili fancied.”

The Speaker of the Parliament did nothing to bring the session to order. Shalva Papuashvili later partially admitted the failure to react, saying: “When there are personal insults, I do react and I will when there is a personal insult. At some point I may be too late in this regard, but at least I will take note of it as the Chair of the session.”

After those attacks, the women MPs held an emergency briefing, stating: “Irakli Beraia started fighting women MPs using the methods of SSSG. What he dared to say today is not called masculinity”. The women MPs stressed that this was part of an attempt to discredit them and said: “These dirty methods will not silence us.”

Beraia later apologized for his comments, saying that “When we are shamefully accused of having ties to the Kremlin, we always have a strong reaction… I admit that I was overly emotional due to the gravity of the statement we heard, and I would like to apologize for that.”

This incident has led to public criticism and has been also addressed by other GD representatives, the President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili and the Public Defender, levan Ioseliani:

Salome Zurabishvili, President of Georgia: “I believe this is completely unacceptable… I call upon the Chairman of the Parliament to take the strictest measures against the people who allowed themselves to behave like this today, because if he does not do so, he himself will lose face in the Parliament of Georgia. I think he should act quickly and react!”

Mamuka Mdinaradze, Leader of the Georgian Dream Faction: “These reactions were not likable, although they followed serious provocations from the other side, but this becomes relatively secondary when some ethical norms may be violated and it was a bit too much from our side, we have to admit it.”

Nino Tsilosani, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Gender Equality Council: “Today, in the political statements, they addressed and MP in a way that is completely unacceptable to me. I will never like that kind of expression, and it doesn’t matter what the premise was.”

Levan Ioseliani, Public Defender: “Statements that reinforce and insult discrimination against female politicians will be evaluated in detail by the Office of the Public Defender and will definitely be reflected in the report. At this point, I would just like to say that, no matter how difficult it is to hear a different opinion, this kind of conversation with women is unacceptable to me. Such talk does not add dignity to anyone and only renews the discriminatory attitude towards women.”

The local NGO, Democracy Research Institute/DRI, condemned the “gender-based” incident, saying that “insulting, obscene and discriminatory statements made by the representatives of the parliamentary majority against female opposition MPs went beyond the scope of freedom of political speech and debate.”  DRI said that the verbal attack by the GD representatives on female opposition MPs “aimed to embarrass them and limit their scope of action in the political space by referring to gender-based behavioral norms.” In its statement, the organization quoted the Code of Ethics for Members of Parliament of Georgia, according to which “it is not allowed for a Member of Parliament of Georgia to make an insulting, obscene, sexist, discriminatory speech or statement, or to carry out similar action.” The DRI called on The Ethics Council of the Parliament of Georgia “to study the violation of the Code of Ethics of the Parliament by Aluda Gudushauri and Irakli Beraia and to take relevant decision, as well as on The Permanent Parliamentary Gender Equality Council “to act and make a decision to create a standard of inadmissibility of gender-based discrimination in the Parliament of Georgia.”

Attack on UNM representative in Gardabani

The United National Movement party said that a confrontation had taken place during a Sakrebulo meeting, stemming from a dispute over the sale of school property. Specifically, according to UNM leader Levan Khabeishvili, National Movement members in Gardabani Sakrebulo sought to protect the school property, which they claimed had been improperly sold by Sakrebulo members and its Chairman in collusion with the Mayor, whom they accused of corruption. Khabeishvili said that members of the National Movement Sakrebulo had prevented the sale. During the altercation, one of the UNM representatives in the Sakrebulo was physically assaulted by the GD members of Sakrebulo and subsequently had to be hospitalized in Rustavi.

This news was updated to include the DRI assessment of the incident at 12:56 on November 1, 2023

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)