Ex-Parliament Speaker Urges President to Stand by New Political Force
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, July 9
The Georgian Former Parliament Speaker, one of the most experienced politician in Georgia, David Usupashvili has urged the current President, Giorgi Margvelashvili not to leave politics after the expiration of his term this year and get involved in the formation of a new centrist movement, which will win the future parliamentary elections and put Georgia on the irreversible way of the European development.
Usupashvili released the open letter to Margvelashvili on July 5 and stated that he was waiting for the response from the president.
Usupashvili explained to public that he did not offer Margvelashvili to raise his candidacy in the upcoming race.
“I offered him to get involved in the formation of a new political movement which will help replacing the current officials by the ones who will be better than their predecessors,” Usupashvili said.
Usupashvili, who was the member of the Georgian Dream coalition and served as parliament speaker under the Georgian Dream government between 2012 and 2016, says that the country is in “complete disaster”, where both the ruling party and the opposition are acting against the state interests.
The former parliament speaker belonged to the Republican Party for 25 years, of the party which quit the Georgian Dream coalition before the 2016 parliamentary elections.
After the 2016 elections Usupashvili left the Republicans, as he said because of the controversies about the party’s future, and shortly announced about the creation of a new political movement.
Margvelashvili responded to Usupashvili on July 6 by saying that he would meet him.
“I have had a phone conversation with Davit Usupashvili and we will meet after the NATO summit [on July 11-12],”Margvelashvili told reporters.
“I am familiar with Usupashvili’s letter. I can tell you that I am sharing the main spirit of the letter in the part of assessing the current situation. I also want to tell you that this is a part of the letter. Then there are concrete steps what we can do and how can we serve our country,” Margvelashvili said.
Margvelashvili has not yet announced whether he will participate in the presidential elections this autumn or not.
