Kobakhidze speaks at CPAC Hungary alongside Orbán and other conservative politicians

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze spoke at the Hungarian offshoot of the US-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest on Thursday.

Kobakhidze gave a speech full of familiar topics related to culture war issues, conspiracy theories, and praise for US President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

It was the third consecutive appearance by a Georgian Prime Minister at the event — Kobakhidze spoke in 2024, while former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili gave a speech in 2023.

The annual CPAC Hungary conference began in 2022, and is part of a growing expansion across the globe of the original US-based CPAC. The 2025 iteration of the conference — dubbed ‘the Age of Patriots’ — features a wide variety of speakers across the world of conservative and far-right politics, including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, US pundit Ben Shapiro, co-chair of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) Alice Weidel, and prominent Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.

Kobakhidze’s speech this year came at the beginning of the event, following remarks by CPAC US President Matt Schlapp, who recently paid several hundred thousand dollars to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit, and before Orbán’s keynote address of the day.

He began by emphasising Georgia’s Christian history, which he said ‘we do our best to protect’, before pivoting to argue that Georgia is part of the ‘real West’, which is under attack by the ‘deep state’ influenced West that ‘wants to turn the world into nothing and feel entitled to rule over everything’.

Although the ruling Georgian Dream party announced in November 2024 that it was suspending its effort to join the EU until 2028 — sparking protests that continue to this day — Kobakhidze went on to say ‘our commitment to European integration remains strong’.

‘But we will not sacrifice our dignity or sovereignty. We will not accept double standards, nor will we trade our identity for political favor’, he added.

Kobakhidze then turned to another familiar topic, so-called ‘liberal fascism’, which he described as ‘an aggressive and intolerant foreign-funded ideology and movement designed to weaken state and social institutions, fuel hatred in our societies, promote gender and LGBT propaganda, and dismantle the core foundations of our societies’.

Reiterating past claims, Kobakhidze also criticised Georgia’s Western-funded NGOs and the shadowy, nebulous groups referred to as the deep state and ‘global war party’.

‘We are happy that US President Trump and his administration have announced a fight against the deep state. The infamous foreign intervention tools such as USAID [US Agency for International Aid] and NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], through which the deep state attempted to stage four revolutions in Georgia over the past four years, have been abolished’.

Kobakhidze cautioned that Trump’s fight against the deep state had not yet succeeded, as evidenced by the recent passage of the MEGOBARI Act in the US Congress, but said that he hopes ‘Trump will successfully weaken the deep state’.

‘Finally, I would like to extend my best wishes to all leaders around the world who are standing firm against radical left liberalism and the influence of the deep state — those who continue to defend national sovereignty, traditional values, and the will of their people’, Kobakhidze concluded.

Conflicting stories emerge about US diplomatic outreach to Georgia

The US Embassy said on Wednesday that ‘Ivanishvili has refused to meet with Ambassador Dunnigan to hear a message from the Trump administration’.

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