On October 16, an anti-opposition Instagram page called “Wise Critic” published a video showing Grigol Gegelia, a member of the Strong Georgia coalition, during his appearance on the TV Pirveli channel. In the video, the politician says, “Where am I in this equation? Have they all forgotten me? And often, unfortunately, the answer is yes.” The video is captioned “I felt sorry for him,” which further creates the impression that Gegelia is speaking about himself.
“Wise Critic” is manipulatively sharing a cut-out segment of Gegelia’s interview. In reality, in this part of the interview, the politician is not talking about himself; he is saying that people are no longer being discussed in politics, and that citizens themselves are asking, “Where am I in this equation? Have they all forgotten me?”
On October 15, Grigol Gegelia appeared on TV Pirveli’s program “Public Politics.” He spoke about the “ban on parties” and the prohibition on individuals associated with such parties participating in political activity. He also discussed the October 4 local self-government elections, the detention and pardon of Lelo political party leaders, and the party’s plans. In the interview, Gegelia noted that due to other problems, citizens have become detached from political processes, and their issues are not receiving adequate attention. He named the “law on banning parties” as one of the reasons for this.
By watching the full interview, it becomes clear that the question “Where am I in this equation? Have they all forgotten me?” is not self-directed. As Gegelia explains, in the current political environment, citizens are the ones asking where they stand in this process:
Grigol Gegelia (2:55): “Let me start by saying – this law banning parties is one big farce, a continuation of the unfortunate toxic logic that is consuming politics in our country. And when I say ‘consuming politics,’ I mean it’s killing the political process. This long, drawn-out two-party process is very unfortunate, and we should call it what it is. This process is killing politics because we can no longer talk about the Georgian person. For a very long time now, the political process has stopped speaking to the individual, and ordinary people are asking, Where am I in this equation? Have they all forgotten me? And often, unfortunately, the answer is yes. Because we can no longer talk about people, about the economy, prices, migration, foreign and domestic policy, healthcare, defense…”
The manipulative dissemination of this cut video serves to discredit the politician. Watching the full interview shows that the meaning of Gegelia’s words is taken out of context. Myth Detector has previously verified other false claims about him. Read more in:
- Photofabrication as if the Members of “Lelo” are Holding the LGBTQI+ Flag in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
- “League of Merchants” Publishes a Falsified Quote by a Majoritarian Candidate of Lelo
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