PM to Get Back on Work Next Week ? Saakashvili

Prime Minister, Grigol Mgaloblishvili, will return back to Georgia on Sunday and will get back to work starting from next week, President Saakashvili told government members in a televised meeting on January 9.

The government said in a statement on December 31 that the PM was in Germany for medical examination in connection with problems related to kidney, caused by “tiredness.”

“He [PM Mgaloblishvili] could hardly stand on his feet in recent month and eventually got in bed. But he will join us day after tomorrow [January 11],” Saakashvili said. “We have no time for illness; the work economic crisis does not allow us to relax… Next week the Prime Minister will return to work and we will hold several working meetings with the participation of the Prime Minister to discuss all the [economic] projects.”

Speculation has been widespread in the Georgian press according to which MP Mgaloblishvili’s departure to Germany was linked to an alleged incident between him and President Saakashvili, rather than to his health condition. A week before the government announced about the Prime Minister’s departure to Germany, the Georgian tabloid, Alia reported citing an unnamed source that President Saakashvili allegedly punched Mgaloblishvili and then threw a mobile phone at him. According to the same report, the PM filed for resignation, but President Saakashvili refused to accept it. The government’s press office said the report was not even worth of being commented.

The Georgian daily, Rezonansi, wrote on January 10, that a lawmaker from the ruling party, Giorgi Gabashvili – an old friend of Mgaloblishvili – was accompanying the Prime Minister in Germany in order to convince him not to resign. MP Gabashvili told the Rezonansi that the allegation was “a lie.”

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