President ignores opposition’s request to discuss lari devaluation
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, February 27
President Giorgi Margvelashvili turned down the opposition’s request to call the parliament’s special commission with regard to the lari’s troubles. The president claims that accepting the appeal now would have been unreasonable, as the government required time to tackle the problem. The opposition United National Movement described the president’s solution as “shameful.”
The president made the decision after his meeting with the country’s economic team.
The UNM demanded the special session in the course of several days. Prior to voicing the appeal, two members of the UNM Sergo Ratiani and Zurab Japaridze had tried to attend the government’s meeting.
According to them, they had a plan and offers on how to defeat the current economic crisis. However, they were not let in, as the current legislation prohibits the presence of non-government members at government meetings if they are closed.
Following this development, the UNM asked the president to convene a special session of the parliament on Friday, where PM Irakli Garibashvili would be summoned to discuss ways out of this crisis.
The same appeal was made by the Free Democrats (FD).
Margvelashvili received the Free Democrats leader Irakli Alasania, and other leaders of the party in his palace on February 25.
The president informed that the Free Democrats have discussed the current economic situation and appealed to him to discuss the issue in the legislative body.
“The ministers in charge of the economy are working intensively with the visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government will present a plan for short and medium-term measures aimed at financial stabilization,” he said.
“The IMF mission will complete its visit on March 4 and therefore, I think that we should give the government’s economic team time till March 5 to present a very precise vision on how to overcome the existing difficulties,” the president said.
The IMF promises to give recommendations on what might be done in the current unstable situation.
The UNM condemn the statement, stressing that the current government dragged the country into the crisis and now they even refrain from hearing the suggestions that might help the situation.
“Regrettably, President Margvelashvili has acted like an integral part of ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s irresponsible political team,” UNM MP Goka Gabashvili said.
