“Like they say, ‘You can’t hide a spear in a sack.’ Irakli Garibashvili straight up said, ‘We’re not ready for EU membership, let’s admit it,’ — commented Iago Kachkachishvili, a sociologist, on the statement made by the Georgian Dream party chairman.
On Saturday, April 20th, Georgian Dream chairman Irakli Garibashvili stated that Georgia is not ready to join the European Union.
‘First of all, let’s say that the country has reached its maximum, the peak was in December last year, we became a candidate country. The next stage is accession. Today, we are not ready to become a member country, don`t you agree with me?
There is no consensus on whether the country can become a member of the European Union today. There are so many problems right now, and you know it will take a lot of time. Today, the EU is not ready for expansion, and it will take time, and these next steps depend on many things, many factors.
I want to tell you very simply, if by the time the country is ready, they tell us that, well, tomorrow you will become a member of the European Union, this law [“On foreign influence”] can be very easily repealed, revised, changed, a new one adopted, so don’t worry, everything is very good,’ said Garibashvili.
Iago Kachkachishvili: ‘Georgian Dream does not want Georgia to join the European Union. This is how the government looks at the candidate status: candidacy doesn’t hurt anything, it’s a bone thrown to our pro-European (and misguided) voters, so we don’t lose a single vote in the elections.
Authorities have been “smearing” the EU for years now, official media, bribed “experts,” the judiciary, supposed clergy, troll-bots…
However, the fact remains: the government’s anti-European hysteria has not created a dominant public opinion, has not formed a paradigm, has not generated natural activism… Most importantly, the younger generation has essentially fallen out of the influence of the anti-European hysteria. This is what we are seeing now.'”
