Georgian PM Excludes Division of Ruling Team
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has ruled out their being a division within the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. He added there are no groups within the majority.
“In the reality we are in today, of course there will be different opinions, but I categorically rule out the dissolution of the majority. This is a process that was preferable not to be made public, but there are no my or other’s groups in Parliament,” he stated while commenting on the recent disagreement among the Georgian Dream MPs.
However, several prominent GD members have already confirmed there is a controversy inside the GD, adding there are even talks that some people will be kicked out of the party.
The disagreement started in early April, when Parliament voted for two Georgian Public Broadcaster members of the board of trustees and among them was critic of Georgian Orthodox Church, Ninia Kakabadze, presented by the parliamentary minority. During the vote, some GD members also supported her and in the end, Kakabadze’s candidacy was approved.
GD MP Gedevan Popkhadze slammed his teammates for supporting an “anti-church” candidate and said he was leaving the party, which was followed by some harsh comments from the Parliament Speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze, who accused Popkhadze of “betraying” the party.
After this, some GD parliamentarians took the side of Popkhadze and criticized Kobakhidze, while the Speaker also gained some supporters, who stated some MPs had “made grave mistakes.”
A number of political experts believe the process will worsen until the founder of the GD party and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is force to get involved, while others believe that the younger generation of the ruling party wants to gain more control, adding the tool to solving the conflict is in the hands of Kobakhidze.
On Thursday, the Parliament Speaker stated the situation can be improved but added the people “who had made mistakes” first needed to "agree on some conditions."
By Thea Morrison