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EU Envoy Meets Opposition Politicians

Leaders of the opposition Alliance for Freedom, a group uniting Party of Freedom; Traditionalists; Party of Future and Party of Women for Justice and Equality, met with visiting EU’s special representative for South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, on May 2.
 
Politicians from the Alliance for Freedom said that their request to EU was to engage in talks with the authorities as mediators and then to also monitor implementation of agreements reached as a result of those possible talks.

Although the Alliance for Freedom joined the organizing committee of the rallies before the launch of street demonstrations on April 9, its involvement in the group now seems to be nominal. A group of leaders from opposition parities, which are organizers of the ongoing protests, met with the EU’s special representative on May 1. A separate meeting of the Alliance for Freedom with the EU diplomat was yet another sign that it was to some extent distancing from the organizers of the protests. Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the leader of Party of Freedom, said on April 30 that the alliance’s engagement in the planning process of the protests was not significant.

Also on May 2, Peter Semneby met with a group of opposition lawmakers. MP Guram Chakhvadze, a lawmaker from the National-Democratic Party, who is a member of the parliamentary minority group, said that he had presented his party’s position, involving need for fundamental constitutional reform that would pave the way towards the significant cut of presidential powers in favor of the parliament.

Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM), a leading party in the parliamentary minority group, is also calling for the similar constitutional changes.

“Our proposal is to hold a referendum after the new constitution is drafted,” MP Levan Vepkhvadze, a vice-speaker of the parliament from CDM, told Civil.Ge on May 1. “In case of endorsement of the new constitution at the referendum parliamentary elections should be held after which the newly elected parliament will elect the president. This entire process may last till spring, 2010.”

Petre Mamradze, a lawmaker from the Movement for Fair Georgia, a party led by ex-PM Zurab Nogaideli, told journalists after meeting with the EU diplomat, that his party believed it was not possible to achieve fundamental institutional changes through the opposition’s current tactic of permanent street protests and “blocking of traffic.”

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

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