Ruling party official claims “deliberate campaign of lies” around PM travels

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Sunday alleged a “deliberate campaign of lies” around foreign travels of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and his family.

Kaladze’s comments followed reports by the TV Pirveli channel that said Garibashvili had travelled to the United States with his son on a Government-funded charter flight in August.

“First, it was reported that the Prime Minister had used a state [owned] plane for a personal visit and had spent budget funds on it. Then they found out that it was not a budget expense, and we declare with full responsibility that not a single cent from the budget was spent”, Kaladze said.

However, we remember the period when such flights were carried out under [the former] President Saakashvili's rule, [his] lovers were financed with certain gifts with the budget [money], [his] son’s studies were financed from the budget while it was presented as if Mikheil Saakashvili had a talented son”, he continued. 

The ruling party official stressed the Prime Minister and the Government had “made clarifications” on the flights in question having been “personal expenses” incurred by the Government head. 

Kaladze also responded to comments by the opposition Lelo party that said the group would start consultations on possibly launching an impeachment procedure against Garibashvili.

[I]f we look at it realistically, this is simply an attempt to cover up the issues that are relevant today - for example, when we talk about the [Government-initiated] impeachment of the President [Salome Zourabichvili], [...] [there] we actually have a very big crime. When the President violates the constitution [with an unauthorised departure for foreign visits], this is the most serious matter”, Kaladze noted.

The Strategic Communications Department of the Government of Georgia on Sunday rejected the media reports on the PM’s travels as “fake” and said they were being “deliberately disseminated to mislead the public”.

The Administration said the flight that carried Garibashvili to Munich in August had been “commercial”, with “no state funds” used for the purpose.