Imedi TV owner: no one in Georgia will dare to say that we will not join EU - we are all moving towards Europe

Irakli Rukhadze, the owner of Imedi TV company, on Thursday said that no one in Georgia would dare to say that “we will not join the European Union”, and further added that the country was moving towards Europe.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Rukhadze noted that now the “important” thing was what would happen in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October.

“I think that whether Georgia joins the European Union or not, or whether any article is incorporated in this law [on transparency] or not, this has nothing to do with what is happening now. I told the [foreign] ambassadors [in Georgia] that what is happening right now is a battle for your minds and hearts [for these people] to somehow make you see that the [ruling] Georgian Dream [party] is so bad that maybe you can change it somehow”, Rukhadze said.

Rukhadze stressed that the Georgian Dream party had done a lot of good things, while the alternative was a political force that had done a lot of bad things, in reference to the opposition United National Movement parties and its satellites.

“I have told the ambassadors that whether there will be a debate on the EU or on the law, they should look at everything as a debate in the context of the October elections. [...] No one in this country will dare and no one dared to say that we will not join the European Union. We are all moving towards Europe. What is important now is what will happen in October. For this, they [the opponents] use the law [on transparency] and everything, including the President [is involved in this process]. She [the President] did not say a word about the law. How can you veto the law without explaining why you are vetoing it, just saying “this is a Russian law and I am vetoing it”, he concluded.