Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has raised eyebrows after comparing ‘EU bureaucracy’ to the infamous Nazi Germany propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
On Thursday, a journalist from the pro-government media outlet Imedi TV asked Kobakhidze about an OSCE statement on the 4 October election and subsequent protest, which urged the government to have ‘respect for the right to peaceful assembly’.
During a mass demonstration that coincided with municipal elections on 4 October, a group of protesters attempted to storm the Presidential Palace, but were pushed back by riot police. The government has since described the protest as a coup attempt by the domestic opposition, which it said were being aided by the EU and foreign intelligence services.
In response, Kobakhidze gave a lengthy answer, claiming that the protesters were trying to ‘overthrow the government’ before pivoting to mention Goebbels.
‘Let’s again remember that Europe, as such, is not a panacea. Mr Goebbels, who was distinguished by such propaganda, was also Europe’, Kobakhidze said.
‘I want to remind you that Goebbels was Europe when he worked in the strongest European state during the 1940s. And we cannot allow Goebbels-like propaganda to return to Europe, 80 years after the 1940s’.
Peter Fischer, the German Ambassador to Georgia — who is a regular target of attacks from Georgian Dream — swiftly condemned the comparison.
I repeat what I have said here before:🇩🇪 objects to use of terms & comparisons related to Nazi-Germany that are historically, politically & morally wrong because they demean the victims & raise false implications. pic.twitter.com/tFaCuFmJOf
— Peter Fischer (@Diplo_Peter) October 8, 2025
When asked for comment by a journalist from the opposition-leaning media outlet TV Pirveli, Aleksandre Kartozia, the Georgian Ambassador to Germany, declined to answer and walked away.
Former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a staunch opponent of Georgian Dream, also condemned Kobakhidze’s invocation of Nazi Germany, calling it ‘disgraceful’, while also noting that Kartozia had spent several years in Germany before becoming a politician.
Papuashvili attacks Sandu, doubles down on allegations of foreign involvement
The escalation of rhetoric surrounding the 4 October events was not limited to Kobakhidze — on Wednesday, Parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili published a lengthy letter on X claiming that the ‘4 October coup [attempt] in Tbilisi was masterminded, funded, and engineered from abroad’.
Papuashvili named a number of organisation, including ‘MPs of foreign parliaments, Members of the European Parliament, foreign government-funded NGOs, [and] foreign-government affiliated experts or journalists’, but singled out MEP Rasa Juknevičienė and Moldovan President Maia Sandu for targeted criticism.
On 4 October, Sandu tweeted, ‘My thoughts are with the people of Georgia, who stand for freedom and their European future. Democracy cannot be silenced. Moldova is by your side’.
Papuashvili quoted Sandu’s post directly, adding that it had been published ‘as the violence reached its peak and the mob invaded the presidential palace in Tbilisi’.
He further alleged that it was evidence ‘Maia Sandu expressed her support for those storming the presidential palace’, and moreover, that Sandu ‘found herself directly involved in supporting the coup in Georgia’.
Papuashvili also suggested that it was possible Sandu had been ‘asked’ to make the statement, but did not specify who may have instructed her to do so.
‘Luckily, after years of this shameful and very harmful hypocrisy, Georgian people have learned to discern the machinations behind the “benevolent support”, and have little, if any, trust towards the frenemies of Georgia’, Papuashvili concluded.
Despite the heightened rhetoric towards the EU, Georgian Dream officials have continued to declare their interest in resetting relations with the US, typically referencing shared values with the administration of President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, who was reelected on 4 October, reiterated the call to ‘re-boot’ relations with the US.
Kaladze also dismissed a bipartisan statement from the previous day from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that said the political situation in Georgia was ‘deteriorating’.
‘These [senators] are also under the influence of the global war party. We have stated many times, and I will reiterate that we support President Trump in defeating the deep state’.
Georgian Dream often uses the terms ‘deep state’ and ‘global war party’ to refer to shadowy figures they claim seek to destabilise Georgia, undermine freedoms across the world, and instigate conflict.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
