Opposition is unhappy with Government carousel

The opposition, both Parliamentary and non-Parliamentary, is criticizing the perpetual changes of Prime Ministers and Ministers in the Georgian Government. Opposition MP Gia Tsagareishvili has calculated that during the five years of the Rose Revolution administration there have been five Prime Ministers and 48 changes of Minister. Ten times Parliament has been asked to express its confidence in a new Government team.

Sometimes Ministers are changed when they are fulfilling assignments abroad, as when Acting Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili, who was at the OSCE session in Finland, was replaced by Grigol Vashadze. Sometimes the President praises certain Ministers as exemplary and dismisses them shortly afterwards.

Often foreign partners complain informally that they start negotiating with one Minister and then all of sudden he is changed, meaning everything has to start again. “It is unacceptable that every 2-3 months a certain Cabinet member is discharged, it is unacceptable that in a short period of time one person can hold 5-7 positions. This is not a healthy tendency and does not facilitate the stability of the political system,” comments Gia Tsagareishvili.