Natelashvili Slams Opposition

Shalva Natelashvili, leader of the opposition Labor Party, has slammed other opposition parties for their failure to put an end to what he called the Saakashvili regime.

Speaking on a Rustavi 2 late-night political talk-show, Primetime, on March 17, Natelashvili also lambasted voters for not backing him in the January 5 presidential election. He said that Levan Gachechiladze, leader of the eight-party opposition coalition, “who was head of Saakashvili’s election campaign headquarters” in 1999, received more votes than he, Natelashvili, did. “So voters should also now take responsibility for the current chaos,” Natelashvili said. Natelashvili received 6.5%, against Gachechiladze’s 25.7% and Saakashvili’s 53.4%, according to official results.

He also said that he had always been a real opposition leader, fighting against first ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze and then against Saakashvili, unlike most of the politicians now claiming to be opposition leaders. “For me there is no difference between some of the opposition and the current authorities,” he said. Natelashvili also said that most of the opposition politicians currently on hunger strike were in the past either members of Shevardnadze’s or Saakashvili’s party.

“Of course I am ready to cooperate with them [other opposition parties] and to even establish a coalition government,” Natelashvili said. However, he then added that he was head and shoulders above the others and they should know their place. “What they [other opposition parties] want from me is to bring people to their protest rallies,” he said. He suggested that low turnout at opposition protest rallies was due to the Labor Party’s refusal to participate.

Natelashvili also said that he would “bring the heads of Saakashvili, Burjanadze, [Interior Minister Vano] Merabishvili and [chief of the state chancellery and ex-State Minister for Economic Reforms Kakha] Bendukidze in five days” if people voted for his party in the parliamentary elections.

He, however, also called on other opposition parties to boycott the elections, but added that his party would run if other parties refused to boycott them.