A concert by Aleksandre Kordzaia, the musician known as Kordz, should have taken place on September 27 at Art House, an independent cultural space in the central Georgian city of Gori. The show was set to close the Kamara Festival, part of Creative Compass Georgia, a wider programme for the culture and creative industries. The festival is primarily funded by the European Union, co-funded and run by the Goethe-Institut in Georgia, with contributions from the Danish Cultural Institute.

The concert never took place. Instead, it became the centre of a week-long campaign by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allied media, which cast Kordz as a fascist and the EU as his sponsor.

"There was this onslaught of just government propaganda against the event and against me," Kordz told IntelliNews.

Kordz became a target for Georgian Dream in December 2024, when he released "Anti-Georgian Dream Anthem", a track built around a protest chant that swears at the "Kotsebi", a slang term for the party's members. Georgian Dream has since claimed that the song insults all of its voters.

"Most of the news were addressed to me," he said. "I'm used to it because since two years ago, when I first made this government-related song."

This time, the attacks came from the top of the state. Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said European money was being used in Georgia to fund individuals or groups with fascist ideologies. Georgian Dream MP Tornike Cheishvili accused the EU of creating "pockets" of confrontation between civil groups. Another MP, Giorgi Sosiashvili, said the EU was funding a concert by the author of obscene clips and lyrics. Irakli Kirtskhalia, leader of the parliamentary majority, demanded that the EU delegation explain how it chooses the people and events it funds in Georgia.

Pro-government television followed. Imedi, the country's largest private broadcaster, ran a newscast report titled "EU continues to encourage radicalism and extremism in Georgia". Rustavi 2 described Kordz as someone who spreads fascism and hate speech. According to Kordz, POSTV and the national public broadcaster also joined in. He said the speaker and the prime minister commented on the concert even while on official trips abroad, at the UN and in Brussels.

"They really went on the news every day, once or twice, talking about me and this event, which was new even for me," he said. "It's crazy."

Kordz believes the scale of the reaction had little to do with his profile. "I'm an averagely popular musician. I'm not a superstar, so I don't think that's it," he said. "But I think they really don't like the song that I made about them."

He was also clear about what the audience would have seen. "This was not a political event. It was just me playing music."

The pressure reached the venue itself. Mariam Topchishvili, co-founder of Art House, said pro-government journalists spent half a day there asking who would be responsible if angry people came to confront Kordz. Kordz said officials from the Georgian Dream-controlled Gori municipality then visited the venue and told organisers the event would be shut down one way or another.

"Their threat was that you will get a violent mob outside who will just disrupt the event if you do it," he said.

Kordz wanted to go ahead with enough security in place, but the organisers did not. "Because the event was funded by the European Union, they said that they will not take that risk and they would rather cancel the event or postpone it."

On September 23, Kordz announced that the concert was off, citing attacks and threats from local authorities, Georgian Dream members and "propaganda media". The Danish Cultural Institute said that, due to security considerations, the whole Kamara Festival had been postponed. Its statement did not mention Kordz or the campaign against him. Kordz criticised the sponsors for staying silent, saying a little support from the organisers would have been nice.

Imedi presented the cancellation as a response to public protest. Kordz rejects that account. "What they were trying to push here is that because of a large public outcry, the event got cancelled, which is completely made up."

On Thursday, the EU delegation in Georgia expressed regret over the cancellation and said it believes in freedom of artistic expression. Papuashvili responded that the EU ambassador had "understood nothing" and accused the delegation of encouraging hate speech and radicalism. The Georgian Musicians Trade Union condemned the use of government resources and rhetoric to harass musicians.

Kordz said the fascism label was the campaign's central message. "They're really pushing the narrative that I'm a fascist," he said. "I still can't take it seriously."

The row was never only about one musician. By targeting an EU-funded festival, Georgian Dream repeated an accusation it has made for more than a year: that Brussels funds "radicalism" in Georgia. The dispute over a single gig in Gori reflects how far relations between Tbilisi and Brussels have fallen.

Georgia was granted EU candidate status in December 2023. Less than three years later, the relationship is close to breaking point. After the passage of a series of restrictive laws, violence against protesters and the disputed parliamentary elections of October 2024, the government announced in November 2024 that it was postponing accession talks until 2028. The decision sparked months of mass protests in Tbilisi and other cities, the same protests that gave rise to the chant Kordz later used. The authorities responded with police violence and new laws targeting protesters, the media, civil society and the opposition. Dozens of protesters, opposition politicians and a media founder have since been jailed.

Brussels has hardened its position in return. In its 2025 enlargement report, the European Commission described Georgia as a "candidate country in name only." In November 2025, the EU confirmed it had suspended all the formal structures used to implement and monitor its Association Agreement with Georgia. Georgia's visa-free travel to the EU, in place since 2017, is now also at risk of suspension.

The government insists it remains on the European path. In a report to parliament this summer, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's government said Georgia's legislation was now 80% aligned with EU law. It blamed the EU's suspension of joint institutions for making it harder to meet its obligations.

At the same time, Georgian Dream has become openly hostile to Brussels. It has repeatedly accused the EU of blackmail, lying and funding "radicalism and disinformation." Party leaders also claim that a "global war party" or "deep state" controls the West and wants to undermine Georgia's sovereignty.

The EU's ambassador, Paweł Herczyński, has been at the centre of these clashes. In April, he told an audience in Brussels that Georgia was "not on the right trajectory" and that its authorities had chosen "a model of authoritarianism". The foreign ministry summoned him days later and accused Brussels of fuelling polarisation and a "radicalised political agenda". The EU delegation replied that the government's course was pushing Georgia away from membership. It added that the EU "does not force anyone to become a member". Tbilisi has also recently summoned the British and German ambassadors.

The government's claim to speak for the public is less certain. Papuashvili said Kordz's concert insulted "the majority of the Georgian people", and the party presents the EU as working against them. But an EU-funded survey carried out in January and February found that 71% of Georgians support joining the EU. Nearly half said the country was heading in the wrong direction on its European path. More than half said the new laws on civil society and the media had damaged Georgia's chances of membership.

For now, Georgia's accession is effectively frozen. Ukraine and Moldova, which applied for membership at the same time in 2022, opened formal negotiations in 2024. Georgia's process has not moved since then. Neither side appears willing to change course. The government accuses the EU of interference, while Brussels says the door will stay closed until democratic backsliding is reversed.

Kordz fears the pressure is spreading beyond the state and into the wider culture industry. For now, he said, concerts still happen and private sponsors still fund them. But he worries sponsors, and other musicians, may soon think twice before working with artists who have spoken out. With cultural events like the Kamara Festival among the few remaining links between the EU and ordinary Georgians, those events are now becoming targets themselves.

This article is part of a series on EU enlargement. Read other articles in the series here: 

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