Ex-Parliament Speaker returns to politics
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, April 20
Georgia’s former Parliament Speaker and a former member of the Republican Party, David Usupashvili, is returning to active politics and plans to present his new political movement on April 27.
Usupashvili revealed his plan to Georgia’s Public Broadcaster, but refrained from revealing more details.
However, he stressed that for months he had been in consultations with many politicians and public figures to create a new team “that will fight in the 2020 parliamentary elections”.
Several top figures officially quit the Republican Party - one of the oldest parties in Georgia - which failed to overcome the minimum 5% threshold in the October parliamentary elections last year, several days after the elections.
Georgian media speculated that the controversy over the party’s future emerged between brothers Levan and David Berdzenishvili and several other members of the Republican Party, Usupashvili among them.
Levan Berdzenishvili said that neither Usupashvili nor any other top figures explained the reasons as to why they decided to quit.
Usupashvili responded and said he was not going to become involved in any disputes with the founders and members of the Republican Party.
Tinatin Khidasheli, Usupashvili’s wife and Georgia’s ex-Minister of Defence, also quit the Republican Party and took a political break out just several days later.
Analyst Gia Khukhashvili believes that Usupashvili is a top-class politician and he needed to be free from the Republican Party to restart his career.
The analyst said that figures like Usupashvili are needed for the country’s interests.
