Five more ruling party MPs join Popular Force movement
Five more MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream party on Tuesday joined Popular Force, a public movement created by former ruling Georgian Dream party lawmakers who exited the team in June. Photo: 1tv.ge
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Five more MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream party on Tuesday joined Popular Force, a public movement created by former ruling Georgian Dream party lawmakers who exited the team in June.
Sozar Subari, a member of the movement, said the parliamentary composition of the movement was expanding with the addition of Eka Sepashvili, Viktor Japaridze, Davit Kacharava, Dachi Beraia and Zaal Mikeladze.
In total, our movement will be represented in the parliament of Georgia by nine MPs, which means that we will have the third largest political group in the legislative body”, he said.
Subari also noted recognised political experts Tamta Megrelishvili, Zurab Kadagidze, Davit Kartvelishvili, Tamar Chiburdanidze, Nukri Shoshiashvili, Otar Chulukhadze, Nika Kobuladze and Ioane Shaishmelashvili had also joined the movement.
Each of them is very valuable for our movement, and we are sure that they will make an important contribution to the achievement of the goals related to maintaining peace in the country and its stable development”, the MP said.
Subari also noted Viktor Japaridze, a member of the movement, had acquired 52 percent of the share of the Post TV channel, stressing the move would “help us bring the message to the public even more widely”.
He also added MPs in the movement were remaining as members of the parliamentary majority, as the ruling Georgian Dream faction no longer had a majority without the lawmakers of the movement.
Popular Force was established in July by three MPs who said they had left Georgian Dream after a disagreement over the approach to public relations with the rest of the team, claiming they had decided to use their new status to periodically release information on political developments in the country that would otherwise be kept within official circles.
They have since come out with controversial public statements that have included allegations of the US embassy in Georgia’s interference in the country’s judiciary, accusations of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy being partial in domestic politics, and more.
Popular Force, a public movement composed of former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party who exited the team in June, on Thursday condemned the “so-called visit” of Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko to Georgia’s Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia on Wednesday, calling the move “extremely wrong and unfriendly”.
Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Tuesday said the ruling Georgian Dream party could not follow the “tone and style” of the statements by the MPs who had left GD following a disagreement over the public relations strategy with the rest of the faction and were criticising actions of the United States Embassy and Ambassador Kelly Degnan.
MPs and members of city councils who have left the ruling Georgian Dream party over the past month following a disagreement over the public relations strategy with the rest of the team on Thursday declared the founding of a public movement.
Guram Macharashvili, a member of the Parliamentary majority, on Thursday said he was leaving the ruling Georgian Dream party and would join three MPs who exited the team last month following a disagreement over the public relations strategy with the rest of the faction.
Georgia is a small country, we have a lot of challenges, some of the territories are occupied and we need “stronger” partners and allies, as well as “strong relations” with “everyone”, especially with our “main partners” - the United States and the European Union, the Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Tuesday.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday rejected the statement by Bonnie Jenkins, the United States undersecretary of state, who said that the US had been “dismayed” to see recent “personal attacks” on ambassador Kelly Degnan and the embassy in Tbilisi.
Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Sunday told reporters “nobody” has been eavesdropping on government representatives and called the accusation that the state security service has been wiretapping the ruling Georgian Dream party’s members a “lie”.
The Georgian public is “entitled to know” how much aid money the United States has spent in Georgia and for what purpose, a group of former ruling Georgian Dream party lawmakers now composing the Popular Force movement said in a statement released on Monday.