Saakashvili Meets Two Opposition Politicians
President Saakashvili met with Gia Maisashvili, leader of the small opposition Party of Future, and Gogi Topadze, leader of the Industrialist Party, on March 12.
The meeting comes after Saakashvili called on the opposition to cooperate in the face of, what he called, external threats resulting from Russia’s decision to lift sanctions on Abkhazia. The main opposition parties have rejected the president’s call, saying it was but a PR stunt and instead called on the authorities to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and to pull out Russian peacekeeping forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“Despite the political differences we have and despite the fact that we may disagree on some issues, there are issues that can not be a source of dispute between us; these are the territorial integrity of Georgia, Georgia’s unity and Georgia’s future,” Saakashvili told Maisashvili and Topadze. “Everything can change in Georgia tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, many governments may change, but if we lose our territory bequeathed to us by our ancestors, all the other [issues] may lose any sense and those who understand that are real patriots and have the future in our country’s politics. So I am ready to listen to your views on these issues.”
Maisashvili ran for the presidency in the January 5 election, getting less than one percent of the vote. Topadze is a Georgian beer magnate and founder of the Industrialist Party. He has, however, distanced himself from active politics in recent years.
