Parliamentary Faction of Alliance of Patriots Faces Collapse
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, September 19
Parliamentary faction of the Alliance of patriots of Georgia (APG) might fall apart as its faction Chair, Nato Chkheidze announced she will quit the faction and become an independent parliamentarian.
Chkheidze did not provide the reason for her decision, saying she will talk about it later. Her decision was unexpected for the rest of the APG party MPs.
Irma Inashvili, one of the leaders of the party, told Rustavi 2 TV that she was not expecting this decision. According to her, if Chkheidze leaves the faction it will fall apart, but added the APG has an action plan.
“I am surprised. I did not really expect this decision. There was no confrontation between us. If Nato Chkheidze leaves our faction, it will collapse but we have a plan and will act according to it,” she stated.
If the APG faction collapses, it will bring financial damage to the party, because faction members have higher salaries than ordinary MPs. The faction Head has GEL 5,468 per month, while the deputy-head has GEL 4,738. The monthly salary of an average Georgian MP is GEL 4,623.
In addition, the faction has its budget funding, has its own office, the vehicles allocated by the parliament and also has its own business trip fund. When the faction members go on a vacation, they also get bonuses to their salaries.
Moreover, faction members have the right to give more speeches during the parliament session than the regular MPs.
Member of the Parliament, who is not in any party faction, is an independent member of parliament. Nato Chkheidze, presumably, will continue to function in parliament as an independent member.
Chkheidze is the founder of Iberia TV, which has problems nowadays as its main financial donor company Omega Group has a state debt of Gel 51 million as it was not paying tax.
The TV journalists claim the government is trying to pressure the broadcaster by creating financial problems to Omega Group.
