“I don’t want to reveal too much, but frankly, they don’t seem to understand a lot.” This, said by opposition member Aleko Elisashvili, was a key phrase for Georgia this past week. The country has shot back into the headlines, with The New York Times (“Arrest of Opposition Leader in Georgia Raises Fear of Growing Instability”) and The Washington Post (“Nika Melia’s Arrest Means Democracy Is Under Threat”) both beating the ‘democracy in danger’ drum.
Elisashvili made the remark in reference to the European Council delegation, which brokered a meeting between the opposition and the Georgian government on Monday night. The meeting came after several months of crisis, in which opposition leader Nika Melia was arrested at his party’s headquarters, the prime minister, Giorgi Gakharia, resigned, and the opposition began a boycott of parliament and demanded fresh elections.
Indeed, the fact that the Georgian opposition and the government met at all was down to the Europeans. Yet while the second part of Elisashvili’s phrase (“Why does the opposition refuse to enter parliament?”) is the key to understanding the immediate crisis, there’s another story at play here – of the disconnect between the way media portrays events, and what really interests the people of Georgia.
