President welcomes speech feedback from PM
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, April 3
The President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili said that he welcomes that the Prime Minister and other ministers are considering his speech in detail.
Margvelashvili made the comment in response to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili’s statement that the president made some ungrounded accusations about the government in his annual speech.
“I think that considering the issue so thoroughly will have a positive action on the strength of the government of Georgia and its effectiveness," Margvelashvili said.
It should be noted that the PM expressed his negative attitude to the president’s notes towards the work of government.
According to him, he has always been an initiator of phone calls or meetings with the president, and aimed at establishing a positive relationship among state institutions.
Concerning the absence of the government during the president’s speech, Gharibashvili said that the current authorities have agreed not to become a part of pompous events, especially when the country’s constitutional arrangement has changed.
Garibashvili pointed out that the Georgian Dream was not elected to hear the president's criticism towards the government.
Parliamentary Secretary Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze said that the PM’s statement about the president being uncommunicative is ungrounded.
According to him, the president used the authority granted to him by the constitution to address government twice a year, and asked them to appoint sessions. As the president said in his report that unfortunately, he did not receive answers to the letters sent in November and February.
The president’s advisor Giorgi Abashishvili also responded to Garibashvili’s statement.
According to him, the head of state must be honest – both about the country's achievements, and the assessment of its shortcomings.
“The president's speech is not a speech towards any political party. This is a report to society, so it is natural that the president proposed certain recommendations for the government, and spoke about their success and problems as well,” Abashishvili stressed.
The president made his annual address on March 31. The government members refused to attend the event.
