Georgian opposition parties enter parliament after 6-month boycott

Earlier yesterday, a number of representatives of Georgia’s opposition bloc entered the parliament after boycotting their mandates for almost six months. Individual MPs of the United National Movement and European Georgia parties, as well as opposition MPs from the Strategy Agmashenebeli, Lelo, Girchi-More Freedom, and Republican parties, joined the parliament session on April 27.

Upon their arrival in the parliament building, the opposition MPs were met with a large crowd calling them ‘slaves’ and ‘traitors.’ Participants of the rally also asked the opposition MPs “why they abandoned them” to which the MPs said that they did not.

MP and member of the opposition United National Movement party who also entered the Parliament stated earlier that today marks the new page of the political history of Georgia:

“Today, we open a new page in the political history of our country, as we begin to implement the agreement reached with the direct participation of the President of the European Council Charles Michel. This agreement, which we have signed, and are here to implement today in the Georgian legislature, is a path to a European future, and we hope that its spirit and none of its clauses will be violated”, MP Samadashvili added.

Similarly, the leader of the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party Giorgi Vashadze, who entered the parliament among, thanked Georgia’s European and western partners for helping reach an agreement, and stated that there are still some struggles that will have to be resolved in the future:

“This is a valuable document for our country. Many thanks to our European and Western partners. Most importantly, [we should remember that] there are still a lot of difficult days ahead of us at the parliamentary debates”, Vashadze said.

The opposition United National Movement party which won the majority of opposition seats in parliament, as well as the European Georgia and Labour parties, have not yet signed the EU-proposed agreement and did not enter the Parliament today. Earlier last week, Georgia’s Western and European partners, as well as the dip corps present in the country, repeatedly called for the opposition parties to end the boycott, sign the agreement and claim their seats in the parliament.