Parliament official says opposition calls for “technical interim government” not in line with political agenda set by EU

Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Monday said the demand of a part of the domestic opposition to form a “technical interim government of national accord” was “not in line” with the political agenda received by the country from the European Union.

The Parliament official stressed Georgia had received a “strong message”, European perspective and plan from the EU for obtaining membership candidate status, noting the agenda was to be implemented this year. He also highlighted the Government and the Parliament’s responsibility to ensure the recommendations were implemented “qualitatively”.

A change of the Government, instability and imposition of other aspects on Georgian politics run counter to the spirit adopted by the European Union. Manipulating with rallies on such issues is not in line with the democratic and constitutional process. [...] [T]here is a more powerful and larger weapon than a rally that the Georgian people have, and this right is guaranteed by the Constitution - these are elections”, Kadagishvili said.

He also stressed that even though the “radical opposition” had “never recognised” most recent election results, Georgian citizens had supported the ruling Georgian Dream party in both of the two votes held over the past two years in the country.

All this is part of the plan of the [opposition] United National Movement [party]. Their plan is - [given] they can not win the elections - to try to use all the situations for destabilisation and escalation to seize power. [...] I will tell you that there will be no change of the Government in an unconstitutional way”, he concluded in his comments.

A rally in support of Georgia’s European integration, called by the civic movement Shame on Friday, called for Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili to resign within a week over his Government’s failure to secure the EU candidate status for the country.

Organisers of the protest also called for formation of a “technical interim government of national accord” that would be tasked with implementing the 12 recommendations issued by the EU for Georgia to receive the candidate status.

The European Council on Thursday said Georgia should be given the perspective to become a member of the European Union once certain priorities in different areas of the reform agenda are addressed. 

The European Commission will monitor Georgia's progress to address these priorities and report on them by the end of 2022.