Six MPs leave ruling team to join former PM Giorgi Gakharia’s party
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, April 15
Six Georgian Dream MPs Giorgi Khojevanishvili, Alexandre Motserelia, Beka Liluashvili, Shalva Kereselidze, Mikheil Daushvili, and Ana Buchukuri left the ruling party yesterday to set up a new party with the ex-Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. MPs announced at the briefing held in the parliament that they would continue working in the legislative as independent MPs. Khojevanishvili, Motserelia, and Liluashvuili will also have to resign from their parliamentary posts as they were nominated for the positions by the Georgian Dream fraction.
According to Liluashvili, the decision to leave the party has no alternative as the GD party has failed to resolve the challenges facing the country. Liluashvili stated that the main problem for Georgian people is increased poverty, unemployment, and pandemic and that they are not interested in political disputes for power. According to him, “in the condition of such degree of radicalization,” the agenda of the Georgian Dream no longer corresponds to the needs and objectives of the people.
Khojevanishvili stressed at the meeting that as the former members of the Georgian Dream, they share the past success and failure of the ruling party, and at the same time, they take responsibility for the mistakes. According to him, he will support any initiative that will ease radicalization and tension in the country. Khojevanishvili said they would unveil their political plans along with ex-PM Gakharia in the nearest future. The MP did not rule out the chances that more GD members might leave the party and join them.
The Chairman of the Parliament Archil Talakvadze assessed the MPs’ decision as a wrong step and stated that when it comes to the challenges the country is facing, which the MPs stressed themselves, “it is unacceptable to point out the responsibility of the team, but to exempt themselves from the responsibility,” he said.
“It is a shame to avoid a common responsibility and talk about the problems which you are equally responsible for and are obliged to work on solving them,” Talakvadze called on the MPs.
Gakharia resigned on February 18, 2021, citing disagreement with his fellow party members over the upcoming arrest of the head of the United National Movement opposition party Nika Melia. Gakharia said Melia should be arrested according to the Law, however, the ex-Prime Minister believes that amid the political tensions, Melia’s detention would further escalate the crisis. On March 22, Gakharia declared that he wasn’t leaving Politics and was working on his political agenda.
Several opposition members have stated that the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili uses Gakharia as the goal to create an alternative political force, however, MPs who recently left the Georgian Dream, claim that neither they nor ex-PM is connected with Ivanishvili.
