Georgian Dream presents Giorgi Gakharia as Prime Minister
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Wednesday, September 4
The Chairperson of Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili presented Giorgi Gakharia as the candidate for the position of the Prime Minister of Georgia.
“At the political council I, as chairman, presented a new candidate for the position of Prime Minister, Giorgi Gakharia. We received full support. After that, we had a meeting with the majority and there were no questions asked,” noted Ivanishvili while presenting Gakharia as the PM.
As Ivanishvili said, Gakharia, for his work - starting as a business ombudsman and then working at the economy and interior ministry - deserved to be nominated as a prime minister. Leader of the ruling party thinks the parliament will approve Gakharia's candidacy.
Giorgi Gakharia was appointed as the Minister of Internal Affairs in the November of 2017. During his time in the office, his name has been linked to many controversial events. From club raids to the Gavrilov night, many have demanded the resignation of Gakharia from his post as the Interior Minister.
The rallies began after law enforcement dispersed a rally against Russian occupation outside the building of Georgian parliament on June 20-21. More than two hundred people were injured. Some lost their eyes. The dispersal of the rally started after an attempt by some protesters to break into parliament.
Gakharia has noted a few times that he would not leave MIA until the investigations of the June 20 night are done, he also noted that he did not have the interest of becoming a Prime Minister a few months ago.
Russian Duma MP Sergei Gavrilov hopes that "Georgia's next prime minister will have the courage to negotiate openly with Russia."
According to the Russian Parliamentary Newspaper, the Russian MP talked about the new candidate for the Prime Minister of Georgia and said that “during the dispersal of the protests of June 20-21, Gakharia distinguished himself with a tough position.” As Gavrilov said, only this could “resolve the conflict.”
Former Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili noted that Ivanishvili's latest moves completely undermine his government's legitimacy. He wrote about it on his Facebook. As Saakashvili said, this government is becoming abusive, and any acts against abusive government “are justified historically, legally, morally.”
The leader of the Parliamentary majority, Gia Volski, said that this is the best decision that the majority has ever made.
"I think it is the right decision and my colleagues also agree with me. Today we have officially decided it in the format of the majority meeting. To nominate Giorgi Gakharia as the prime minister is the best decision that the majority has ever made," noted Gia Volski.
For Gia Zhorzholiani, a member of the Georgian Dream, June 20 is the night when people tried to take control of the building of the Parliament. He spoke about it at the plenary session of the Parliament and noted that everything should have its own name.
According to Zhorzholiani, journalists, media and public should not call the day of the protest Gavrilov Night, because these words are part of the PR of the United National Movement and show the events in a way that only works for opposition’s interests.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, a member of the Parliament, talked about the new candidate and noted that “Gakharia gained very positive experience in the field of human rights, as well as in the field of economics. Later he also worked in the legal field with law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the party has decided that he is the nominee who should take the post of prime minister.”
Parliament will start to discuss the changes in the authorities today and on September 8, a plenary session of parliament is scheduled to discuss giving the vote of confidence to the Georgian government.
Later yesterday, it was announced that 76th day of protest would be held in front of the building of the parliament. According to the organizers, the main demand of the protest is not to appoint Gakharia as the Prime Minister.
For the last few months, several media outlets have been reporting that Gakharia would be appointed as the Prime Minister of Georgia.
Before becoming a member of Georgian Dream, Gakharia worked and lived in Moscow, Russia from 1994 until 2013. He worked as Director for Business Development & Government Relations for Europe, Russia & CIS at Lufthansa Service Holding AG.
Gakharia worked as Interior Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia and as a Business Ombudsperson of Georgia.
