Former UNM MPs Plan to Create New Political Centre

Former United National Movement (UNM) leaders, Zurab Japaridze, Goga Khachidze, Giorgi Meladze and Pavle Kublashvili, who have recently left their official positions within the party, plan to offer the Georgian public a bold new program for economic development instead of fighting for parliamentary mandates in the 2016 elections.

“Our motivation has never amounted to expectations of receiving a parliamentary mandate in the 2016 elections. Moreover, none of my colleagues, who have departed from the National Movement plan to fight for the mandate, as they believe our society wants something new,” Japaridze said.　

“We still remain in a struggle, we maintain the same position, we have the same enemy - the oligarch, who came into power through lies and plunged the country into crisis. We think the political spectrum needs to be re-arranged as soon as possible in order to defeat the oligarch,” says the statement released jointly by the MPs last week.

“We plan to fight for the European, democratic future of united Georgia, to get rid of the oligarch, who ground the economic system to a halt, facilitated poverty and collapsed state institutions. We understand people’s worries about economic problems and plan to create a new political center, attracting professionals to engage in the political process,” the now independent MPs confirmed.

“The UNM is dissolving” was how Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili assessed the departure of four UNM leaders last week. “It is surprising that the party has not fallen apart completely yet. They are trying to masquerade as if they were a team again, but the party is dissolving as three more teams emerge from within it,” Garibashvili stated.

Iveria, a Social Movement, which is mainly composed of the high-caliber technocrats including Gregory Vashadze, the ex-Foreign Minister of Georgia, is expected to welcome these ex-UNM MPs in the near future.

Author analysis:

There were allegations that the UNM has entered its ‘final phase of dissolution’, though the reality is different. Vashadze assumes that UNM, which has endured three tough years since the 2012 elections, will be able to continue its efforts to ‘please’ the GD even more. Saakashvili, UNM founder and leader, who has recently become Odessa’s governor, says “people come and go” and that MPs resigning did not amount to a tragedy.

As for establishing a new political center, Georgia’s disappointed society is seeking some new force(s) to lead the country with competence, professionalism and the right ideas. Experts say Georgia, in the face of its current hardships, is bracing itself for its most pivotal period in terms of democracy, economic prosperity and overall development, including mental transformation.