United National Movement party a “paralysed organisational structure” - opposition MP
Opposition MP Iago Khvichia said on Wednesday the former President Mikheil Saakashvili leaving politics would ease the tense political environment in Georgia. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office
Tweet 
Share
The United National Movement opposition party is a paralysed political structure but may have chances to recover if its founder, the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili, quits politics, Girchi opposition party MP Iago Khvichia said on Wednesday in comments on reports of Saakashvili planning to retire from political life.
In his remarks, Khvichia suggested that Saakashvili’s alleged leaving politics would also decrease political polarisation in the country and allow other opposition parties to strengthen.
All of us - politicians and especially his fellow party members - must do everything to encourage Saakashvili to leave politics. It will be better for everyone. If we want peace instead of confrontations in this polarised country, it is of utmost importance for Saakashvili to freely quit”, Khvichia said.
In his earlier comments, the opposition MP urged three parliamentary opposition parties to join the ruling party-proposed working format to address the conditions set by the European Commission for Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status.
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili is now receiving treatment in a Tbilisi civilian clinic. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Slamming the United National Movement, Lelo for Georgia and the Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition parties for their decision to launch a separate working format earlier this month, Khvichia stressed that the opposition’s move “hampered” the country’s European integration process.
Making focus on Saakashvili’s health, the former President’s lawyers said last week that Saakashvili had plans to leave politics to “look after his poor health”.
Responding to the possibility, the ruling party MPs said that if Saakashvili decided to withdraw from politics, the move would “in no way” lead to his release from prison.
Saakashvili, who currently holds Ukrainian citizenship and took a public post in Ukraine before being arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021, claimed he returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile to help the UNM take office again “via elections”.
However, the current Government said that Saakashvili and his “destructive opposition” had plans to overthrow the current state leadership.
The former President is now serving his six-year term for abuse of authority while in office, and is facing several other charges.
Two opposition MPs in the Georgian Parliament, Vakhtang Megrelishvili and Levan Ioseliani, on Tuesday condemned the move by three opposition parties and several MPs to boycott a working group recently proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and instead create a parallel format last week to work on Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status.
Plans of the “radical opposition” to form a technocratic Government in Georgia have failed, with the group now trying to “discredit” the state legislature through the formation of a parallel working format for work on Georgia’s EU candidacy, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuahsvili said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
The Parliament of Georgia has started discussions of an amnesty bill concerning the June 2019 protests. The bill was initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream party and was discussed during the first hearing last week.
Before the first hearing of the bill, the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition were unable to come to an agreement on the amnesty bill, initiated according to the EU-mediated agreement signed by the ruling party and the majority of political parties back in April 2021.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday welcomed reports of former President Mikheil Saakashvili planning to retire from political life, saying Saakashvili’s presence in domestic politics was “unlawful” as the former President held Ukrainian citizenship and chaired the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council before being arrested in the Georgian capital last year.
Two Parliamentary opposition groups, the Citizens and Girchi parties, on Thursday released a joint letter calling on the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili to withdraw from politics and urging the former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili to take political office again in a bid to ease domestic political polarisation “hampering” Georgia’s European Union membership process.
Levan Ioseliani, a member of the Citizens opposition party and the vice speaker of the Georgian parliament, on Monday said the opposition United National Movement party was “collapsing” and finding it “difficult to make decisions” without the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Levan Ioseliani, a member of the Citizens opposition party and the vice speaker of the Georgian parliament, will attend the United States midterm elections as an observer next week.