Ruling party head: GD appreciates “statements based on national interests” from President

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the ruling party would “always” appreciate “any statement” by President Salome Zourabichvili that was “based on national interests”.

Kobakhidze comments followed Zourabichvili’s interview with the Ukrainian media on Thursday, in which she said she had to “take into consideration” the “feeling of the Georgian people” in the controversial matter of whether she would pardon the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The President told the interview the country’s citizens had “lived through nine years of the Saakashvili regime [of his former United National Movement Government], which has left many victims [in its wake]”.

In his response, coming on the back of a series of controversies between Georgian Dream and Zourabichvili on a range of matters of domestic and foreign policy, Kobakhidze said the party would “not enter into polemics” with her, and noted GD acknowledged her comments when they were made in the “national interests”.

[When] the President makes statements that correspond to our national interests, we will always acknowledge it. This is one such statement that is worth noting”, he said.

He also added that despite mutual criticism between the party and the President, Zourabichvili still “does not violate certain red lines, which is very welcome”.