Ruling party official: UNM’s Parliamentary boycott “incompatible” with EU conditions` implementation

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the opposition United National Movement party’s boycotting of the Parliament was “incompatible” with goals of implementation of the European Union conditions for granting the country its membership candidate status. 

Mdinaradze’s comments followed the statement of Khatia Dekanoidze, one of the leaders of UNM, who on Tuesday said she disagreed with the party’s position on the boycott as “being in the Parliament now is important”.

In his remarks, Mdinaradze said the boycott from a “radical” domestic opposition was a “defence mechanism”, and claimed “many contradictions” in steps involving the domestic opposition forces.

If some of them really come to their senses and say ‘there are 12 recommendations to be implemented, let's sit down and participate in the implementation of the recommendations’ - this would be a positive message, and we would welcome it”, the GD official said.

“I was very surprised - they told me that Khatia Dekanoidze said there were 12 recommendations to be implemented and ‘we [UNM] should be in the Parliament’. If any representative of the United National Movement starts to think this positively, it would only be welcome, although it is a little hard to believe”, Mdinaradze concluded.

UNM has rejected participation in work involving the Government for the fulfilment of the EU conditions since last year. However, earlier this month the party announced a “deadline” for the ruling Georgian Dream party to meet the bloc’s conditions and revealed it would hold a public rally around the matter in Tbilisi on April 9.