Ruling party MP Volski: scale of UNM rally proved nothing to me
MP Volski also spoke of the issue of reconciliation, stating that ‘hate speech is much more prevalent in today's politics,’ blaming the UNM for it. Photo: 1tv.ge.
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Ruling party MP and Vice Parliament Speaker Gia Volski has responded to the protest rally organised by the largest opposition party, United National Movement (UNM), stating that ‘the number of people gathered at the rally proved nothing to me.’
The UNM and its supporters demanded the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested on October 1, the day before municipal elections in the country took place.
The number of people who have had their dignity, health and lives trampled, is much greater in Georgia than those gathered [at the rally],” Volski said.
He abstained from specifying the approximate number of protesters at the UNM rally, and stated that Georgia is a democratic country and ‘it does not matter how many people were gathered’ yesterday.
The essence of the issue matters and that essence does not change. Saakashvili is guilty of a number of issues and a number of issues are still being discussed,” stated Volski.
Demonstrators from various regions across Georgia joined the rally yesterday, ‘despite provocations on the roads staged by ruling party activists,’ the UNM said. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013, faces several criminal charges and has been sentenced to six years of imprisonment in two cases: an attack upon opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili, who was assaulted and gravely injured by armed men in Tbilisi in 2005, and the murder case of Sandro Girgvliani in 2006.
He was found guilty of abuse of power in both cases in absentia in 2018.
MP Volski also spoke of the issue of reconciliation, stating that ‘hate speech is much more prevalent in today's politics,’ blaming the UNM for it.
Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, claims that currently he is on a hunger strike and considers himself a political prisoner.
UNM member Levan Bezhashvili announced earlier today that the party plans to hold ‘large-scale rallies’ in all major cities of Georgia, with the same demand of Saakashvili being released from prison.
Former President Saakashvili claims that more people attended the rally yesterday than in 2003, when the UNM overthrew Eduard Shevardnadze’s government.
However, local media outlet Netgazeti reported that approximately 40,000 individuals protested the former president’s arrest at Freedom Square in Tbilisi.