Subari, Kavelashvili, and Khundadze Resign from Georgian Dream Party and Factions
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the chairman of the Georgian Dream faction and the Party’s Executive Secretary announced the departure of three deputies from the ruling party and the parliamentary majority following their disagreement over public relations strategy with the rest of the faction on June 28. As Mdinaradze said at the briefing, these deputies are Sozar Subari, Mikheil Kavelashvili, and Dimitri Khundadze.
MPs voiced their view that the partial information received by the public from the ruling party on political subjects in our country and our team was not adequate to keep citizens informed and make the right conclusions.
According to Mdinaradze, the three resigned MPs believed the party should have released more information on political developments behind the scenes, adding they have decided they need a free parliamentary mandate for voicing it.
“It is possible that they could have caused some inconveniences within the team in this direction,” Mdinaradze added.
All three deputies hold the position of Chairman of the Committee in the Parliament of the 10th convocation: Sozar Subari - Chairman of the Committee on Regional Policy and Self-Government; Dimitri Khundadze - Chairman of the Committee on Health and Social Affairs; Mikheil Kavelashvili - Chairman of the Committee on Sports and Youth Affairs.
In his comments, Subari referred to the current difficult period in the region and “attempts to get Georgia directly involved in the war.”
“The only thing that can prevent this danger is the support of the people and the spirit of the people. People need to know the truth. On the one hand, there is a danger of getting involved in the war, on the other hand, we are at the gates of the most important decision for the country. This is an opportunity for us to join the European Union,” Subari said.
Subari believes that the public is not sufficiently informed. According to MP, to enter the EU and avoid war there is a need to provide more truth to the public, adding ‘we have to tell the people more truth than we can when you are a member of the ruling team’. He referred to the certain restrictions that membership of the ruling team entails in terms of information sharing. The other two MPs’ comments repeated this rhetoric as well.
On June 29, three MPs issued a joint statement. The text reads that there are great forces that want a revolution in Georgia, to change the government elected by the people and ‘replace it with people who are directly responsible for the many crimes committed in 2004-12’, and for this purpose, National Movement and its media and NGO satellites held a meeting in Bakuriani, where they also invited a well-known specialist in Revolutions from the US, Peter Ackerman. MPs argue that the topic of EU candidacy was introduced by this group for the same purpose.
They write that in the background of Russian military aggression and the ongoing war in the country, where people die every day, the EU candidate status for Ukraine is irrelevant and can not be even a small consolation. The same goes for Moldova, which directly borders the conflict zone, is home to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, and is experiencing severe economic problems.
“The only reason why the candidate topic needed was to aggravate the political background for the Georgian government and artificially create a revolutionary basis.”
In a joint statement, the deputies said that after the decision of the European Union, the events went exactly as predicted by the team members - participants of Bakuriani meeting rallied and demanded the resignation of the government, reiterating two terms that were mentioned in the EU documents - deoligarchization, which means that Bidzina Ivanishvili should leave Georgia, and depolarization - the release of Saakashvili and Gvaramia from prison.
According to the resigned MPs, the short-term scenario to insult the Georgian government through well-known resolution and the statements of the MEPs, and create an emotional background among the people failed.
“The second scenario is based on the EU decision on candidate status. By refusing to grant it, they created a certain emotional background, which, in their opinion, should be followed by the so-called reforms, the only goal of which is to change the government and take ownership of the Georgian court.”
They say the main goal of this scenario is to drag Georgia into war, saying “that is why Zelensky and Arakhamia were the characters in the revolutionary rally, which was also part of Ackermann's script.”
“You understand well that neither Irakli Gharibashvili will overthrow the country and the people for a fatal war, nor Bidzina Ivanishvili will ask him to do so,” the statement read, adding that its the National Movement and its affiliated NGOs or TV personalities who would do that.
“We see that as soon as the useless candidate status was granted to Moldova, it made a statement about imposing sanctions on Russia. It seems that Moldova made this promise in advance and doomed the country, in exchange for practically nothing, only for the worst economic problems.”
According to MPs, when “300 MEPs sign an absurd resolution, the overall picture and purpose are as clear as a day. No one will grant Georgia candidate status in 6 months if it does not get involved in the war or does not impose sanctions on Russia, which is also a direct path to war.” They believe that a completely unprecedented 6-month period was invented in order not to slow down the excitement of a part of the society in the country.
The statement also names their main goal which is to prevent the scenario that will lead Georgia to unrest, war, and Russian military occupation, as well as to prevent the implementation of the plan, which aims to create artificial obstacles to Georgia's European integration.
“We must equip the society with the truth so that it becomes a guarantor of Georgia's European future.”
They also say that speaking publicly on certain topics on their part will create embarrassment for the management team, that's why they decided to leave the party, faction, and parliamentary positions and act independently. However, they remain supporters of the Georgian Dream and promise to help the team in every possible way.
Earlier PM Irakli Garibashvili warned to lift the curtain on everything and tell everything to our people if the EU decision on Georgia’s candidate status would be ‘unfair’. But the GD authorities so far seemingly opted for ‘not lifting curtains’ as the EU acknowledged the European perspective for Georgia, albeit short of immediate candidacy.
After the withdrawal of three deputies, 81 MPs remain in the parliamentary faction ‘Georgian Dream’ remains. According to the Constitution of Georgia, the support of 76 members of parliament is required for the formation of the government.
The decision of the deputies was preceded by thousands of rallies in Tbilisi demanding European integration.
The People's Movement ‘Home to Europe’ made two demands at a rally in front of the parliament on June 24: the first is the resignation of Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, and the second is the formation of a government of national consent.
The People's Movement has given the government until Sunday to fulfill these demands. Another protest rally is scheduled for July 3 on Rustaveli Avenue.
On June 23, the European Council granted Ukraine and Moldova EU candidate status and Georgia European perspective and said it was ready to grant candidate status as soon as the set priorities were met.
Organized by the same activists, a rally in support of European integration was held on June 20.
