Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that visa liberalisation, once a politically significant issue, has now effectively lost its relevance as a means of political leverage.

Speaking on the GPB First Channel programme “Actual Topic with Maka Tsintadze,” Kobakhidze stated that even the possible suspension of visa-free travel can no longer be used to exert pressure on Georgian society or to provoke instability in the country.

According to the Prime Minister, Georgian society responds rationally and pragmatically to decisions imposed unjustly by European bureaucracy and cannot be manipulated through what he described as exhausted instruments of blackmail.

“It is in our interest, and in the interest of our citizens, to enjoy comfort and avoid inconveniences such as visa queues and related hardships,” Kobakhidze said. “However, these instruments of pressure have been used so excessively that even the so-called threat of suspending visa liberalisation no longer carries any coercive force.”

He stressed that attempts to use this issue to artificially incite a revolution would fail, as society remains sensible and evaluates such decisions pragmatically.

Taking these factors into account, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that European institutions would ultimately refrain from making impractical decisions. He added that even if such a step were taken, it would neither trigger unrest nor achieve its intended effect, instead depriving European bureaucracy of what he described as its last remaining tool of pressure against the Georgian people.