Opposition Rejects Ruling Party’s Response

The opposition has rejected the ruling party’s response to its demands, saying it was totally inappropriate and unacceptable, and has called on supporters to attend a protest rally outside Parliament at 2pm local time on February 15.

“This is a shameful response made after three weeks of hysteria, with the authorities telling us they would meet 15 of our 17 demands,” Tina Khidasheli of the Republican Party told Civil.Ge. “The continuation of dialogue is impossible in light of this response by the authorities, who have chosen not to meet any of our demands.”

“They are making fun of us,” MP Zviad Dzidziguri said. “They [the authorities] are testing us. They want to see whether people will turn out tomorrow [at the protest rally]. I assure you people will turn out at the rally and it will be a radical protest rally. Now is not the time for discussion. We have a responsibility towards our people and we will consider together with our people what to do with these dishonest authorities.”

“The response [from the authorities] is much worse than we could have imagined during the consultation process,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the opposition New Rights Party, which is not part of the nine-party opposition coalition, said. “We have no tangible result on any of the issues. There is no willingness by the authorities to resolve the issues listed [in the opposition 17-point memorandum]. They have been ignored.”

Meanwhile, ruling party lawmakers defended the government’s response, saying it was a compromise and that the opposition’s rejection of it was an attempt to move the political process back onto the street.

“Instead of backing agreements through the signing [of the ruling party’s memorandum] and instead of implementing [the provisions in the memorandum] we receive statements of this type,” ruling party lawmaker Levan Bezhashvili, who was engaged in the talks with the opposition, said. “Some in the opposition still want to move political developments from Parliament onto the streets and create destabilization. I think this effort is doomed to failure.”

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